Empowering & enlightening — all for her special daughter

Dubai — It was a mother’s desperate struggle to support her daughter, born profoundly deaf, that has culminated in the establishment of Kalimati Speech and Communication Centre in Dubai.

The centre that is currently supporting about 45 speech and hearing impaired children, would not have happened if its Director and Founder, Bedour Al Raqbani, mother of Noora Al Kaabi, had not struggled to reach out to other children like her daughter.

And the extra mile that she walked to support her daughter and other kids like her has now been officially recognised. Noora’s was one of the two families that were honoured with the Princess Haya Award for Special Education (Phase) on Thursday evening. After receiving the award, Al Raqbani told Khaleej Times how it all began.

Noor was born deaf and when she was eight years old Al Raqbani realised there wasn’t any centre here that offered high quality services and overall support system like she had seen in the US, and aspired to offer to her daughter.

“Having been to high schools in Dubai and the best universities, I just couldn’t sit and do nothing about it. I had to be proactive. I was fortunate to have the support of my family and friends.”

“Finally, I started the centre because of my daughter. My husband, parents, in-laws, and siblings ... we put together donations to start up the centre. My friends supported me, as well. Some of them designed the interior, some designed the logo and some actually gave donations in terms of materials and books.”

She explained how she came up with community initiatives because of Noora.

“We initiated two international conferences for the deaf. We had keynote speakers who were deaf but had PhDs who actually gave the presentations in sign language.”

Al Raqbani said Noora’s frequent question as to why she needs an interpreter for people to understand her made her think about the need for the community to learn sign language.

“That is when we came up with the Hear Us Sign campaign.”

The interactive initiative which had Emirati singer Hussain Al Jassmi, who is also the United Nations ambassador at large for the Arab and the Gulf region, as the ambassador, saw a special truck going around the country to teach sign language to people.

“We were so happy to have children coming up to us and say they didn’t know there are people who cannot hear. That was the awareness that what we wanted to create.”

Being an Emirati, she said, she feels blessed to have the support from the country and its leaders. “We are empowered. We have to empower our children. We have to accept them as they are and help them move on in life.”

She is confident she has done it in the case of Noora. “She is an independent child. She plays gymnastics. She is the class topper academically in mainstream school Mizhar American Academy. We as a centre, we were able to make this connection of interpreters and schools to support children like her.”

Family’s role

Families play an important role in offering a support system for the differently abled children. “If they don’t accept their special children as they are, they cannot move on in life. The child needs love and understanding regardless of his or her condition. So I always say we have to empower the families. By doing so we empower our children.”

That is exactly what the Phase award aims at by having a category to encourage families that are outstanding in offering support for special children.

“Our children’s love is actually more than enough for us. But when the society also recognises the work that you have done out of motherhood, it is a beautiful feeling,” said Al Raqbani.

She has previously won several other recognitions such as the Arab Woman Award and Entrepreneur in Education Award. “But this one is more special because it has my daughter’s name,” she said, holding the trophy.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com