Friday, April 20, 2007 Living, earning in the world of darkness By Genalin D. Ducay
LIVING in a world devoid of light and the risks it imposes are among the challenges that every visually-impaired individual faces.
Overcoming these challenges is another thing. A blind person can either give up his lot and stay idle or resolve to do the opposite and do something productive.
Forty-two-year-old Ramon Lustre chose the latter. Ramon and his companion Stephen Garson and Elvis Duke, are members of the Visually Impaired Society in Occidental Negros, Inc. (Vision, Inc).
They are the blind masseurs inside the Wessam Express Terminal servicing weary passengers.
For a fee of only P100 for 30 minutes, one can have their tense and fatigued muscles loosen and relieved.
There are times when business for Ramon and his friends is good but at other times, they all go home empty-handed.
Orginally, Ramon was rendering services inside the SuperCat Terminal at the BREDCO port until the Ocean Jet took over.
Just last month though one of the owners allegedly drove them out prompting them to seek the help of Wessam manager Butch Carbon, who not only agreed to let them in but also offered a space inside the passengers lounge for free.
"That's why we are very thankful to Mr. Carbon who gave us the space. He understood our plight," says Ramon.
Carbon, on the other hand, said it was only a way of helping the three. He said he was touched that afternoon when after he agreed to the request "one of them showed me a text message from his daughter that said: Pa, ti nakatransfer na kamo sa Wessam?"
As to why he gave the space for free and refused to accept any commission, Carbon said "It would be such a shame to exploit these people who only knew this kind of work for a living."
Life devoid of sight
Born on March 11, 1965, Ramon has enjoyed his sight for 17 years before he completely lost it to cataract.
"I was only nearsighted when I was still young. It was after I graduated from high school that I became totally blind. I miss the color of the life I once knew," he said.
After high school, Ramon attended trainings on massage therapy in a center called Patnubay sa Kalusugan where he learned the trade.
Afterwhich he started working as a massuer, together with his blind wife who was his girlfriend since high school, in the SuperCat terminal.
Being both blind, the couple has struggled with the challenges that their disability brought.
Despite this, the couple had raised their four-year-old son decently with the help of their relatives and friends.
He said his wife do most of the household chores without help to include cooking meals, washing dishes, ironing and washing colored clothes.
"We are already used to the difficulties. For people like us our main problem is mobility especially among blind women. I can go out on my own but I always tell my wife to bring someone along every time she goes out to the streets," Ramon said.
With only a cane as his aid, Ramon had experienced on many occasions when he tripped on something or bump into someone.
He recalled falling into a manhole in front of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital twice because the sewer's lid was missing.
This is aside from the sneers he frequently hear from uncaring individuals who seem to take enjoyment in teasing people with handicap like Ramon.
"I'm so used to it that I no longer react to it like I did before. I don't put it in my head. I just ignore it and go on with whatever I am doing," says Ramon.
While being interviewed, Ramon pulled out a piece of P20 bill and ask a utility man inside the room if it is a P100 bill he was holding. The man said, "no."
Asked how he manages to identify the money when he is to buy something, Ramon said "Ginapain-pain ko na sila tanan antes magtulog okun maggwa sa balay." (I segregate them before I sleep at night or before I leave the house).
He said that while some have taken advantage of his disability, most are honest and humane enough to assist him.
For his blind fellows, Ramon said, "Don't lose hope. It all depends on how you manage your life to become productive. You still have other senses, use them.
Don't just depend on someone just because you're blind. Try to live like normal people despite the lack of sight."
Statistics
"Hidden among the 85 million people and the 7,100 islands of the Philippines, are an estimated half a million people who are blind, and many more who are visually impaired to a lesser degree," the website blind.org.ph posted.
It added that "Perhaps up to one hundred children lose their sight every week in the Philippines." A summary of the Second National Survey of Blindness in the Philippines conducted in 1995, which is also posted in the website, showed that the prevalence of bilateral blindness in Filipinos is 0.70% meaning 478,968 out of 68.4 million.
Cataract, glaucoma and uncorrected aphakia were the most common causes of blindness found during this second national survey.
Among the recommendations made are efficient and effective coordination of eye care services through a national prevention of blindness committee; a good referral network; empowerment of local governments to deal with the cataract backlog in their own areas; incorporation of eye care education in school curricula; intensive information campaign against blindness and on eye health; and a national registry of the blind as an evaluation tool.
