Cairo: Jasour – News Desk
The National Council for Persons with Special Needs launched the activities of its salon under the theme “Extraordinary Role Models,” supervised by Rasha Abdel Moneim, the Cultural Advisor to the Council.
Participants in the salon included Dr. Omnia Said, Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Zamalek; Eman El-Zaheri, former President of the Defense, Security, and Justice Division at the Ministry of Finance, Financial Consultant, and Lecturer on Gender-Responsive Budgets and Marginalized Groups; Dr. Karim Ahmed, recipient of the “Thousand African Leaders” award; and Dr. Hiba Said, Family Specialist at Basira Center and an expert in digital marketing.
Dr. Omnia Said shared her life story, explaining that she lived without any disability until the age of 23 and ranked first in her academic year during different stages of her studies. Her lifelong dream was to join the Faculty of Fine Arts, where her skills flourished. However, a life-changing accident led to her disability.
She added, “Before the accident, I often depicted children with Down syndrome in my drawings. I was determined to capture their spirit in my art. After the accident, I joined their ranks as a person with special needs. I suffered a spinal fracture that left me reliant on a wheelchair for mobility.”
Dr. Said expressed how the accident confronted her with societal limitations, such as exclusion from certain jobs, inaccessibility to some places, and the inability to live a “normal” life. Yet, she remains deeply content with her destiny and grateful for her journey, despite the challenges posed by people’s biases and unwillingness to accommodate differences.
She continued, “We struggle with a lack of specialized care from medical practitioners during physical therapy. There’s also an issue with insufficient nursing skills. What we need is not just medical proficiency, but a more human-focused approach to caregiving.”
