CAIRO - Have you ever imagined what it's like eating in the dark? The idea seems strange. The reader probably wonders what's this mad writer's going on about. But what prompted this question was my experience at a ‘Dinner in the Dark' event. It wasn't the food that was important, but the fact that the waiter was a blind man called Abbas, whom people address as known Mr Abbas. He took ‘Dinner in the Dark' in his stride, waiting on ordinary people and asking them to choose what they would like to eat from a menu written in Braille. Abbas may be blind, but all his other senses are finely honed. He also shepherded a group of blind, talented children, who had a great time for about two hours at the event. Yasser Helmy, a 21-year-old medical student who inspired this event, said it took two years for his idea to come to fruition. He also works with a bigger team called EMSA the Egyptian Medical Students' Association whose members all innovative young people. EMSA's president, Ahmed Atef Belal, is no more than 30 years old. Ahmed explained that success never comes from nothing, but a good education and a real concern for the blind “will make them supermen in their societies”. He said that blind people just want to get their rights and wanted ‘ordinary' people to stop treating them as if they were unable to do anything. “We run a blind club. As well as helping blind people, it spreads awareness among ordinary people about them,” Helmy told the Egyptian Mail on the sidelines of the dinner that was held in a five-star hotel in Cairo and attended by superstars like actress Yussra, actor Ahmed Ezz and media figure Bothayna Rashwan. “In the blind club, we have a number of well-trained blind waiters. We're hoping that they can one day work as waiters in high street restaurants. This would make them very happy,” Yasser told this newspaper. Ahmed Ezz said that the event was humanitarian in the first place, adding that he was impressed by the professionalism of the blind waiters, who've had to overcome so many difficulties, “while the rest of us worry about such petty things”. The guests enjoyed spending two hours with children from special schools for the blind. These talented youngsters amused the guests during dinner by singing and telling them about their experiences at school. “Dinner in the Dark' is something that started in other countries, where it's very commercial; here in Egypt, I decided to implement the idea with an educational aim in mind. “EMSA's main goal is to raise people's awareness of different social issues, including spreading the idea that blind people are talented and that the country should appreciate their skills,” said Yasser. “I'm hoping to get private companies to give these people more attention, getting them to benefit from their skills by promising to recruit a certain percentage of their staff from the community of the blind.” In India, for example, blind children are educated with ordinary children, helping integrate them into society, he noted. According to Zakriya Faheem, the head of Asdeqa' el-Kafeef Foundation for the Blind, a special school for the blind, he said that poverty and illiteracy are mainly to blame for spread of blindness, because, in many cases, the parents of blind people are related by blood. Amr Hassan, the head of Fajr el-Tanweer Association for the Blind, revealed that, in the past, the concerned associations offered the blind services, but overlooked the way blind and ordinary people relate to each other, as well as spreading the culture of how to deal with the blind in public for example in the street and on buses and the Tube. “I tell people not to be overly sensitive about the questions sighted people ask them, because most of them don't really know what life's like for the blind,” he added. “In Upper Egypt, there are still parents with blind children who don't realise that they can be educated and can learn to read using Braille. Because of ignorance, they treat blind children in a very humiliating way. I've seen families who leave their blind children at home all day, because they don't know that they can contribute to society.” One area in which the blind are far more skilful than most people is origami, the art of making shapes from paper, based on engineering concepts. Osama Helmy, who teaches origami to blind children, as well as other people, said that they were more sensitive and careful than ordinary people. “Blind children are very good at origami, because they use their hands rather than their eyes.”
