Challenging Disability: A Story from PRCS

Khaled Darwish Ahmad

This is a PRCS success story that we must recount as we celebrate the International Women’s Day. It is the story of Ms. Dallal al Taji, who was chosen by Al Shams Radio Station in Nazareth as the Personality of the Year 2012 in the Gaza Strip when she was hosted by Noon Literary Salon in Gaza City.

Dallal is a Palestinian woman who managed, just like a phoenix, to rise from her ashes and to be born again. Thanks to her strong will and perseverance, she excelled despite her disability, underprivileged situation and the fact that she is an orphan. She went on to earn diploma after diploma, thus becoming an example to be followed by many.

Dallal was born sight impaired. She lost both her parents and close family during the civil war in Lebanon in 1975. She was found at the age of one near a demolished house and was brought to PRCS Akka hospital in Beirut. At the age of five, she was sent to the Anglican School for the Sight Impaired in Beirut. At the age of ten, PRCS enrolled her at 'Al Noor wal Amal’ school in Cairo from which she graduated in 1995 and returned to Khan Younes where she majored in English at Al Azhar University. Dallal, a very ambitious woman, applied for and obtained a scholarship in 2002 and went on to prepare a Master’s degree in the UK in Social and Human Sciences, a subject that she chose given its close links to community development.

Dallal’s role model is Dr. Jean Calder, an Australian volunteer who raised her and has become a second mother to her. As for PRCS, it is Dallal’s home and refuge, it is the warm chest that enabled her to get to where she is now. Dallal considers late Dr. Fathi Arafat, the founder of PRCS, as her spiritual father.

In 2004, Dallal was appointed as Head of the Continuous Education section at PRCS Capacity Development College in Khan Younes. Dallal hopes to obtain a PHD one day, to crown her long series of achievements.