“Don’t look at the people with special needs with pity as though they are beggars. They are human beings with feelings like you. They love life, their jobs and their nation. They also are gifted with the caliber for originality and distinction,” said Abdul Razaq Al-Turki, who is visually impaired himself.
The seminar was one of the concluding events of Aramco’s cultural festival for Ramadan.
“Everyone needs help. What people with special needs require are opportunities and open doors so that they can make their contribution to the nation. History shows that many men have become great ministers, singers, musicians, painters, inventors and poets despite their physical disabilities,” Al-Turki said.
Referring to his own experience as someone with a visual disability, the businessman said: “Although I lost my eyesight at the age of one in 1960, I did not feel disabled or despondent. I led a normal life with other children.”
However, as there were no schools for blind children in his native town of Dhahran he received private tutoring on Arabic language and literature. “I had the desire to be distinguished in my studies and so I was. I passed my high school degree at the Al-Nour Institute for Visually Impaired in Qatif with distinction. I continued my education at a London institute for special needs. I learned many arts and sciences and, above all, to be self-reliant without expecting any sympathy or help from others, nor yielding to any weakness or disease,” Al-Turki said.
In the 1980s, he continued his higher studies at a university in the United States with international relations and social sciences as his majors and did his master’s in international relations. Later he worked as a political analyst at the Saudi Embassy. He learned several languages, including English, Persian, Urdu and Japanese.
He hoped that all government and private establishments in the Kingdom would open their doors to people with special needs so that they could be like any other citizen.
A man with special needs should be appointed for a job on his own worth, not as part of any mandatory reservation system or Saudization, he said.
He called on charity organizations to make more efforts, including the establishment of a club for people with special needs that could train them in writing and speaking. “A disabled man likes to lead a dignified life without being compelled to stretch his hand for any material or moral help," Al-Turki said.
Regarding his personal life, Al-Turki said he met the woman he married after looking for a soul mate for over four years. She is deeply involved in teaching children with special needs.
“She is the peak of gracefulness and polite behavior. She is a woman of excellent qualities. And we have two children, Nour and Ali,” he said.
