Life beyond blindness

He almost killed himself when he learned that he would no longer be able to see. But Isau Ngirbabul immediately realized that there is life beyond blindness.

“Life is like a baseball. It’s not over ’till it’s over. You should never lose hope until the game has come to an end,” he said.

It was in 1994 when Mr. Ngirbabul first felt that his vision was deteriorating due to his diabetes. But he still managed to finish his masters degree in education administration in the University of Hawaii in 1994.

In late 1997, he was playing ball when he sensed that his vision problem was getting worse. When he went to see a doctor here, he was told that he has a very rare disease. “I was so cared, I even asked for an HIV testing,” he said. A battery of tests conducted in Hawaii later on revealed that he was suffering from diabetic retionapathy.

And then everything just happened so fast. One morning, as he got up from bed, Mr. Ngirbabul said his vision was all red. “I thought it was just the natural color of the wood in our house. But when I went to see a doctor he said my eyes are bleeding caused by raptured veins,” he said.

The doctors in Hawaii said the could operate on his eyes but they told him frankly that there was no guarantee that he would still be able to see.

“I was very angry that this happened to me because I led a very active life,” he said. Before he lost his eyesight, he was managing a baseball team, a student of martial arts and playing with his band in almost all social occasions on the island. Most of all, he was concerned about the future of his young son Eric, now eight years old.

In Hwaii, he learned how to use the cane in three-days and was brought to a school for the blind where he underwent mobility and orientation training. He was also introduced to the Braile System.

In Saipan, he is being assisted by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation which functions primarily “to eliminate unemployment and promote independence among eligible individuals with disabilities throughout the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands through a managed system of community education and comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services.” Now, he can do a lot of things at home without his wife’s help.

“We want to help them become independent so that the family members can go to work and earn their living,” said Tee Abraham, Director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Ms. Abraham hopes to establish soon an independent living center that will be able to provide referral and information service to people with disabilities. Anybody with disability can go there and ask where she or he can find various types of assistance — from sign language interpreter to affordable housing and transportation service.

“But most of all, we need people like Sau to speak up and tell the community what they need, to demand what they believe should be given to them,” Ms. Abraham said.