A recent story in the Democrat and Chronicle featured an inspirational MCC student, Mohamed Gazali, who studies in the Human Services Department at Damon City Campus.
Blind refugee turns his life into a light in the darkness
By Jim Memmott
(March 10, 2007) — All refugees carry burdens. Memories of oppression, memories of family members lost. But Somalian-born Mohamed Gazali, 22, has had an extra challenge.
In 1997, when he was 13 and new to Rochester, Gazali went blind in one eye. And then, a few months later, he lost the sight in his other eye.
Robbed of the childhood he had finally been able to enjoy, Gazali became depressed and withdrawn. "I started hating myself," he says. "I didn't know what to do. I always stayed home. I was shut down by a lot of this."
But he is shut down no more.
He has a job; he's finishing up at Monroe Community College; he is an inspiration to others.
"I still think I didn't do anything well yet," he says. "But I hear people every day, at school, at my job, look at me and say, 'How did you do it?'"
The question has no short answer. Give credit to his family, friends, social workers, teachers and counselors. Give special thanks to the people at the Islamic Center in Brighton who told him not to give up. And don't forget his Big Brother, Bob Brennan.
But most of all, credit Gazali and his resilience.
"I grew up in such a hard life," he says. "It made me mature very quickly."
Gazali was 9 in 1994 when he escaped Somalia, a country that had been torn apart by civil war.
His mother, Amina Abdalla, and his younger sister, Khadija Gazali, had gone ahead to Kenya. He went several months later by himself, when there was enough money for his flight.
The family was in a refugee camp until they came to Rochester in 1997.
They have lived for years in the River Park Commons housing project on Mt. Hope Avenue, a haven to many Somali families.
Gazali and his mother and sister are still there, though they will have to move, as plans call for the complex to be torn down. It will be replaced by housing units that will, for the most part, have higher rents.
Soon after he arrived in Rochester, Gazali lost the sight in his right eye to glaucoma. A little while later, he suffered a detached retina in his left eye. He eventually lost the sight in that eye, too.
“I was confused,” Gazali says. “I used to ride a bike. I was really enjoying it because I didn’t have a bike in Africa. One day my vision got to a stage where I couldn’t do it anymore before I killed somebody or killed myself.”
The blindness added to his general feelings of alienation. He could barely speak English; he didn’t understand the school system; and then he couldn’t see.
“I had wanted to explore the world,” he says. “When I lost my vision, it was a terrible story.”
However, as time went on, some things got better.
Brennan, a volunteer from Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Greater Rochester, came on the scene.
They did things together like canoeing. Brennan helped Gazali with schoolwork. And he answered the teenager’s frequent questions.
“I would say we were going to do something,” remembers Brennan, 78, of Perinton.
“And he’d say, ‘How come?' ”
Brennan and Gazali have remained friends. Indeed, Brennan is Gazali’s biggest cheerleader, pointing out all the young man has done.
After Jefferson Middle School, Gazali went to Edison Technical and Occupation Center.
For a couple of years, he felt lost and alone again.
“But it became a new world when I went into the 11th grade,” he says. “The staff, the teachers, the counselors made me feel better about myself. They told me I could do anything I wanted to do.”
His start at MCC was delayed for a semester, as he waited for a laptop equipped for the blind. He began in January 2005 and is finishing up now, majoring in counseling.
The laptop has proven to be vital, as its software reads text out loud.
Gazali has help from other students who take notes for him, and he has counselors and tutors.
He sometimes takes the bus to school. Other times, he comes with his sister, who is 18 now and a student at MCC as well.
Gazali moves quickly through the halls and up and down stairs, using a long, collapsible cane and pulling a backpack with wheels.
“I memorize the landmarks,” he says. “I memorize the number of turns. And you rely on sounds. Sometimes I get lost, but I go back to where I came from and I start over again.”
Gazali has a job at the Association for the Blind and the Visually Impaired. Before that, he worked at Home Depot, fielding customer service calls.
After MCC, he hopes to go to a four-year college, obtaining a degree in counseling.
“I want to support my family overseas as much as possible,” he says. “And people who are in need here, I want to help them out, too.”
Dianne E McConkey Public Affairs 03/16/2007 |