Over the weekend I volunteered with Foresight - a Dubai based organization helping to accelerate a cure for blindness, caused by hereditary eye disease - particularly Retinitis Pigmentosa. Foresight was participating in the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon and had a team running for them, but more importantly they were there to support Katy Newitt, Foresight’s Chairwoman, who aimed to be the first visually impaired person to complete the full Dubai marathon (a whole 42 kms)
Foresight had a stall at the venue and was selling T-shirts, caps and pins for charity. My job, as a volunteer, was to sell as many T-shirts as possible, encourage people to donate and to give out Foresight brochures. This was the first time that I was working with the Foresight team and I loved the way they embraced a new volunteer. There were no questions asked – you just had to put on a Foresight T-shirt, quickly learn the rates of the items being sold and begin.
Being a person with passive interests I have stayed away from marathons so far, not knowing that it can be a place of great activity even for a bystander for me. There were so many people, from all over the world, who had gathered there, despite the rain, to cheer the runners. There were lots of people stopping by our stall hoping to get some freebies but there also were many who bought T-shirts or simply stopped by to put money in our charity box. We sold out the caps and had few T-shirts left by the end of a few hours. I had interesting companions in the form of Alison, a teacher by profession, who was now freelancing so that she can volunteer for such causes more often. Also Joyce, who had got her ten year old son along with her and he seemed to be having a great time. Like me, it was her first time too with Foresight. There was Joanna, a working woman wanting to do something meaningful in her spare time. All in all it seemed like one large family getting together for a common cause.
Katy finished the marathon in four hours, forty eight minutes, a commendable achievement and a record of sorts. We raised approximately two thousand two hundred dirhams from T-shirt sales and donations - money that will now go to Foresight's new research project.
I often think of how difficult it must be to have to live without one of your senses. My father, now 74, has lost 70% of his hearing and my heart goes out to him when I see him try hard to lip read, or intently try to catch every word we say to him over the telephone. It’s not easy to have hearing aids in both ears and to worry about whether the batteries will last till the end of the day. My mother complains of exhaustion because she has to almost shout to communicate with my father, at times.
It’s not very often that I thank God for giving me all that He has. Just being born with all faculties intact and to parents who are so wonderful and nurturing is a thought enough to give me the confidence to do everything I intend to do in this lifetime.
Foresight had a stall at the venue and was selling T-shirts, caps and pins for charity. My job, as a volunteer, was to sell as many T-shirts as possible, encourage people to donate and to give out Foresight brochures. This was the first time that I was working with the Foresight team and I loved the way they embraced a new volunteer. There were no questions asked – you just had to put on a Foresight T-shirt, quickly learn the rates of the items being sold and begin.
Being a person with passive interests I have stayed away from marathons so far, not knowing that it can be a place of great activity even for a bystander for me. There were so many people, from all over the world, who had gathered there, despite the rain, to cheer the runners. There were lots of people stopping by our stall hoping to get some freebies but there also were many who bought T-shirts or simply stopped by to put money in our charity box. We sold out the caps and had few T-shirts left by the end of a few hours. I had interesting companions in the form of Alison, a teacher by profession, who was now freelancing so that she can volunteer for such causes more often. Also Joyce, who had got her ten year old son along with her and he seemed to be having a great time. Like me, it was her first time too with Foresight. There was Joanna, a working woman wanting to do something meaningful in her spare time. All in all it seemed like one large family getting together for a common cause.
Katy finished the marathon in four hours, forty eight minutes, a commendable achievement and a record of sorts. We raised approximately two thousand two hundred dirhams from T-shirt sales and donations - money that will now go to Foresight's new research project.
I often think of how difficult it must be to have to live without one of your senses. My father, now 74, has lost 70% of his hearing and my heart goes out to him when I see him try hard to lip read, or intently try to catch every word we say to him over the telephone. It’s not easy to have hearing aids in both ears and to worry about whether the batteries will last till the end of the day. My mother complains of exhaustion because she has to almost shout to communicate with my father, at times.
It’s not very often that I thank God for giving me all that He has. Just being born with all faculties intact and to parents who are so wonderful and nurturing is a thought enough to give me the confidence to do everything I intend to do in this lifetime.
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