 |
Parents experience... |
|
|
|
East meets West Mr Ye Zijie and I first met when he came to study at Dorton College for the Blind in Sevenoaks, UK, in March 2000. He was the first of several exceptionally able people from North China which a group of us supported in various ways when we formed a charity to support visually impaired people in China some years ago. According to figures released by the China Disabled Person’s Federation (CDPF), there are approximately 60 million disabled people in China, at least 8.7 million of whom are blind or visually impaired. However, no accurate figures exist for the number of people actually affected by sight-loss, and some sources have put the figure as high as 15.9 million (Zhuoying Qiu, China Rehabilitation Research Centre). Even the lowest estimates indicate that China 's visually impaired population is the largest of any country, representing about 18% of all visually impaired people in the world. The widening socio-economic gap in China means that sight-loss is often associated with poverty, social exclusion and poor conditions in rural areas. Our group, called China Vision, is a UK registered charity set up in 1999 with the aim of forming a bridge between people in the UK and China who are concerned about improving educational opportunities for visually impaired people in the People’s Republic of China. Our work has included the following fields of activity:
Access to information, especially for visually impaired people in rural communities, is extremely limited. Even for those lucky enough to learn Braille or, for the partially sighted, to obtain optical reading aids, very little practical information is available either in Braille or in print. Much of our energy in recent years has been directed towards providing Braille materials for Ye and other blind people to enable them to improve their English skills. Ye’s main reason for coming to the UK was to learn English, IT skills, and western daily living skills. Conversational essaysYe and I correspond via e-mail these days and ‘conversations’ take the form of ‘essays’ rather than letters. He encourages me to correct him as far as possible although I am in no way a teacher. Below is what Ye wrote to me on his return home after being at college from March to July this year. My daughter is one year and nine months old. She is a jovial and lively child. Every morning, she gets up early, and then starts talking to me or her mother, depending on who is lying beside her. Her voice is clear, as if a bird singing in morning. I am a teacher in Huhhot, China, teaching in a special school for visually impaired students. Because I need to work, I have been learning massage in a college, which is about 12 hours away by train from my city. This course lasts two years, and started last year. Because of learning, I often leave JingJing for a term, which is usually 16 weeks. It is a really long time for me, and I always miss my daughter in college. When I get home for holidays, she isn’t familiar with me. I spend most of my time playing with her in the holidays. I am totally blind, but we are still able to discover ways of making both of us happy playing. I know as a sighted child, my daughter likes taking delight in seeing, so I always try to make some actions to attract her. For example, I often put up a pillow on my head, and constantly pull it round in front of her. When she sees such gestures, she laughs almost every time. Also, I often play ball with her. I kick the ball to the wall softly, because it’s easy for me to find the ball, and get it back. Or I kick the ball to her, and let her kick it back. She can do this well. I think it's because she likes to mimic my action. I heard that some blind parents tie some sounded objects, such as bells, to their little children, so they know where their children are. I don’t like this way, and have never put any bell on her. I think it’s an abnormal way to bring a normal child up. Now she can walk, if I can’t find her, I will call her until she gets back beside me. It’s a problem that I can’t go out with her independently, so my parents or my wife always accompany us to go out for a walk. We each hold one of her small hands separately, and she often jumps between us. If hearing music, she will stop to dance immediately, and even the people passing by look at her laughing. His wife’s name is Shen BiYun and his daughter is called JingJing. JingJing will be their only child as, with very few exceptions, China restricts couples to one child only. Huhhot is the provincial capital of the Inner Mongolia province in North East China. Much of the province lies within the Gobi Desert. Although Ye was taught some mobility skills while in the UK, his environment is not particularly conducive to independent travel so he always has someone with him when he goes out. Becoming a masseur is considered the ‘crème de la crème’ of a profession for visually impaired people in China and is considered a better career prospect than teaching. ResourcesI have not been able to find out whether there are any specially produced toys in China such as those produced by the Royal National Institute of the Blind in the UK, which disabled parents could use with their children. However, while there is Chinese Braille, based on Mandarin, and also a Cantonese version (mainly used in Hong Kong) there are almost no English Braille materials available in China. A small group of us are therefore currently looking at ways of providing English children’s books in UK or US Braille which Ye could use to read to JingJing as well as considering how to increase access to a larger range of materials for use by adults in China. For more information about our programmes and courses, please contact us at: China Vision, 55 Red Lion Street, London WC1R 4TB, UK. Tel: +44 20 7404 2225 Fax: +44 20 7404 2226 E-mail: chinavision@hotmail.co.uk |
Chris McMillan, a visually impaired parent from Reading in the UK introduces her friend, Ye Zijie, a visually impaired father from China.