Shyamali Barua is an orthopaedically challenged orphan female beneficiary who made everyone at ‘Voice of World’ proud when she received the Diploma Citation today (6th March, 2019) from the Hon’ble Governor of Tamilnadu at the Convocation Ceremony of the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai.
She received the Diploma on successful completion of the 2 year D.Ed – Special Education in Multiple Disabilities course. She was one of the successful candidates of the inaugural batch in that discipline.
It is worth mentioning that Shyamali is a completely wheel chair bound girl, who cannot even stand due to her physical deformity.
With support from ‘Voice of World’ Shyamali travelled to NIEPMD, Chennai in 2016 and took up the course so that she could become a Special Educator for Children with Multiple Disabilities. She stayed in the hostel there to negotiate the challenges of staying alone in the city of Chennai which is about 1700 Km from her home at ‘Voice of World’ in Kolkata and in a city where the culture and food habits are completely different thus adding to her already prevalent physical challenges.
However her perseverance and determination steered her through the challenging times and she emerged successful in her mission.
With completion of the course she has already started her career as a Special Educator in the ‘Voice of World Inclusive School for the Intellectually Challenged and Multiple Challenged’. She wants to give back to the society what she has received in terms of support.
Shyamali often says “I do not have a disability, I have a gift! Others may see it as a disability, but I see it as a challenge. This challenge is a gift because I have to become stronger to get around it…….”
Kudos to Shyamali for the spirit and the attitude.
