Avinash, A couple in Bangalore adopted a blind girl some years ago. The couple is not blind, but they made a conscious decision to adopt the girl and provided her everything money and parental affection could buy. This girl, Shalini Mennon, is now 16, and has grown up into a bright and confident young lady. She left Bangalore earlier this year to study Economics and mathematics at Amherst, one of the top schools for mathematics in the US.
There is another couple in the US that I know of who adopted a blind girl from India. The Hallidays chose to adopt two blind children instead of having children of their own. Mrs. Halliday is herself blind, and has a Ph.d in mathematics. Geetha -----Original Message----- From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of avinash shahi Sent: 28 September 2013 18:44 To: jnuvision; accessindia Subject: [AI] Blind couple adopt blind orphans - Chicago Tribune Many may have read this true story in the past but who didn't, can read now. Do you know any couple in India like this one discussed in the piece? Do inform, please. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-05-11/news/ct-met-blind-adopting-bli nd-20110511_1_cta-bus-rupa-lessons Love is blind inside the two-story brick house on Mulligan Avenue. And that is why the microwave buttons are marked with Braille. The clocks in the home all announce the time. And at 7:15 a.m., everyone is listening carefully for the school bus. Ten-year-old Rupa is the first to hear it. "Oh, the bus is here!" she calls. Her mother rushes to the front window, listening for confirmation before calling out: "That's it!" Rupa grabs her white cane. Six-year-old Aihua reaches down and, guided by touch alone, pulls on a pair of rubber rain boots. Then Paula Sprecher hustles them outside. With each step of this hectic school-day morning, the 49-year-old mother of two helps her daughters find their way in a world that neither she nor they can see. Sprecher and her husband, Alan, have been legally blind since birth. And though Alan had some doubts about fatherhood - would they have enough to offer a child? - the couple took a leap of faith in 2008 and adopted Rupa from India. In January, they brought home Aihua from China. Both girls are blind, too - Rupa can detect some light, while Aihua has no vision at all. And that is fine with the Sprechers, who describe each of their daughters as "a gift." "My husband and I, we grew up without sight," Paula explains. "This is so normal to us. We knew there were children out there who were probably given up (because they were blind), and we wanted to provide a home for someone like us, for someone we thought we could help." Helping the girls, the Sprechers know, means pushing them into the world. And so they teach their daughters how to ride the CTA bus (listen carefully for each stop, they say), how to identify coins by their size and weight ("This is a dime!" says Aihua, correctly), how to sort the laundry (pin your socks together before you put them in the wash). The Sprechers have come to realize that, in the long arc of life, success rests on a foundation of a thousand little lessons. And so, day by day, inside the cozy house with the blue shutters, lessons about dimes and socks become lessons about confidence and independence. Though she is still learning English, Aihua declares with perfect pronunciation: "I can do it!" It's a phrase that makes her parents smile. "They're going to be functioning in the world someday," says Paula. "We try to teach the kids a routine and let go a little more and more." Canes, cues Letting go isn't always so easy. At Farnsworth Elementary School, both girls are mainstreamed in regular classes and receive help from a classroom aide and instruction in Braille. Sprecher is a teacher who works with the blind at the school, and so she is never far away. But on a recent morning, when she popped her head into the music room to check on Aihua, she couldn't see that that her daughter - who has only been in school for three months and, because of the language barrier, can't understand much of what's happening around her - was in the back of the classroom, looking a little scared and hiding her face between her knees -- Avinash Shahi M.Phil Research Scholar Centre for The Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessind ia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. 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