Have you ever wondered how blind people feel and navigate their way in and around their homes and society?
That is what a young Site C activist sought to achieve when she held an awareness initiative on Saturday 18 March.
Dubbed ‘lunch in the dark’, the event happened at Shawco, Section A in Khayelitsha, to educate society about the challenges faced by blind people daily. Those attending were blindfolded for the duration of the event. They had to do everything with their eyes covered. The day’s theme was ‘walk a mile’.
The organiser Nandipha Gcorha said the aim was for people to experience or feel how it felt to be blind.
“We want to put people into a blind person’s shoes. Being blind is not nice. We are being discriminated against and called names because we can’t see,” she said.
Gcorha stated that they intended to give people the “exact experience” of the blind.
“They ate, drank and even went to the toilet with their eyes covered. We want to give them an exact experience of what we are experiencing every day,” she said.
Gcorha, who has one eye, said she lost her second eye when she was 12 years old. “I was born with the dots in both my eyes. When I was 12 years old I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with glaucoma (a disease that damages your eye’s optic nerve. It usually happens when fluid builds up in the front part of your eye). Then I had surgery and just a day after the surgery my left eye completely lost sight. I currently have 5% vision,” she said, adding that her eyesight had deteriorated over the years.
Gcorha urged society not to pity them. “I am a graduate. I have a Diploma in Public Management which I obtained last year. I do everything that ordinary people do. All we want is for people to accept and understand us,” she appealed.
Luvuyo Mrulekana, from Endlovini informal settlement and is visually impaired, appealed to the community to understand them.
According to Mrulekana, blind people mostly rely on their senses. “My visual sight is 60%. I don’t clearly see when it’s dark,” he said.
Mrulekana said his problems began in 2007.
“In the house, I used to bump against things in the morning. Even now, I can’t see from a distance,” he said. He praised the event organiser for a great initiative, saying they needed more similar campaigns.
Resident Nelly Mato, one of the people who were blindfolded, described the experience as a “nightmare”.
“It was difficult. We were not allowed to open our eyes. We were fumbling to get a glass to pour juice. It was worse while we were eating. Imagine eating food that you don’t know what it looks like,” she said, adding that it was fun at the same time.
Mato stated that blind people go through hell. She called on people to stop bullying and discriminating against physically challenged people.