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In an inspiring story of determination and persistence, student Manallah Moawia, who studies at a private school in Dubai, succeeded in overcoming all the obstacles she faced to achieve success in the British secondary school exams (IGCSE), where she obtained an A+ grade in 3 subjects and an A grade in one subject, despite losing her sight since childhood, as she did not let this obstacle stand in the way of her dreams.
Mona was born with glaucoma, a disease that causes pressure on the eye and gradually leads to blindness. By the age of 7, Mona and her family noticed that her vision was fading, and they began preparing her to face this challenge.
“The British high school curriculum is a big challenge for sighted students,” Mona told Al Bayan. “It is full of complex information that requires a lot of focus and effort to understand and comprehend. For a blind student, this challenge is greatly multiplied, as she relies entirely on hearing and audible understanding of texts. She faced great difficulty in this, but she overcame it with the support of her school and family.”
She explained that her family started teaching her how to write and read using Braille, and she continued her studies in schools in Arabic, but the challenge made her more determined to study in English, and she started learning English on her own through available technology, through the phone and computer, where the device reads the written texts aloud to her, until she became able to study in English, and then she joined one of the private schools in Dubai, and with the help of her colleagues and teachers, she was able to overcome the difficulties and achieve great success in her studies.
She added: “The school provided me with the right conditions to be able to study and succeed. The school did not only provide the educational curricula, but also worked hard to provide the technical support I needed during exams.” Mona now aspires to study law after finishing high school, and believes that academic success is only the beginning of her journey towards achieving greater goals.
