The visually challenged are part of our society and have every right to enjoy their lives and get jobs as everyone else or be helped by the society to bring out their hidden talents.

The Ebsar foundation, a nonprofit organization for the blind and visually impaired, recently organized a program to encourage the blind to integrate into mainstream society under the slogan “Our foresight empowers us,” at the Red Sea Mall in Jeddah.

The event was organized under the supervision of Mohammed Tawfik Bellow, the secretary general of the foundation with the support of Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital and the Al-Nahdi Medical Group. The opening ceremony was attended by the visually challenged and visually impaired along with their families.

Bellow said that the program was organized with the aim to introduce the objectives and activities of the foundation as well as the incorporation of the disabled into mainstream society. “We want to project the fact that blind people can be useful members of society and can perform different tasks in the work place in different professions,” he said adding that the visually challenged are very talented and that it was up to society to bring out this talent.

The awareness of the visually challenged was to promote employment for people with visual disabilities as part of the foundation’s 10th anniversary celebrations. Zeiad Alsufiani, the event organizer stated that the different activities included a theatrical program, an exhibition of products made by blind people at the foundation and provision of free tests to detect visual impairment.

He also said that it was a great opportunity for people to get to know the role of Ebsar and its success in the past 10 years as well as its future vision concerning the recruitment of visually impaired people.

The people also enjoyed a short film “Quotes of creativity” that showed the creativity of the blind, a contest on the ability of the blind to guess the content in a series of pictures and describe them, as well as a presentation on the successful experience of blind people in the United States. In addition to a review of the historically famous personalities, who were blind or visually impaired, the audience was also treated to the real-life experiences of some visually impaired people employed in stores.