This story put the whole world at a stand still as a blind and deaf African lady, Haben Girma becomes a graduate from the best law school in the world (Harvard). On hearing this, I wondered how someone who cannot see and cannot hear could go to the university in the first place, talk less of graduate. This is truly remarkable! Many people believe that anyone who has a disability has no reason to live but this woman has proven otherwise. After graduating, she didn’t stop there but has been putting a lot of effort to make sure that the rights of those that are blind and/or deaf are preserved and respected.
Haben Girma, Harvard Law School's first deaf-blind graduate, is fighting for accessible education for other deaf-blind people worldwide, according to BBC News.
The Eritrean-American was born in California after her mother escaped Eritrea in the early 1980s. Today, Girma is a successful attorney who advocates for civil rights of people with disabilities, reported the Diplomat News Network. She says that she is proof that if you believe that you can achieve a goal, then you will.
Her story is remarkable. Haben’s mother, Saba, was an Eritrean refugee who, at age 16, took a dangerous two-week trek to Sudan during the violent Eritrea-Ethiopia war in 1983. With the help of a Catholic resettlement agency, Saba relocated to America. She met Haben’s father, an Ethiopian, in California. Neither of her parents is disabled.
Haben Girma was born deaf-blind in Oakland. Her older brother Mussie was also born deaf-blind, leading her to conclude that the disability is genetic – though she knows little else about it. Both siblings were educated in Oakland’s public school district where they learned braille, worked with adaptive technology, and gained travel skills. Mussie is now a tech advisor and disabilities advocate.
Haben attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland and became the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School in 2013. She is currently a civil rights attorney living in Berkeley.
The 27-year-old's family comes from Eritrea, a country in the Eastern region of Africa. Being born deaf and blind in her home country did not give her many options for access to education, noted India.com. There were no schools for people with special physical disabilities, and it would have been impossible for Haben to get the education she needed to become a lawyer. Her older brother was also born deaf-blind and did not have access to special education in Eritrea, either. She celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Americans With disabilities some time ago at the White House with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Haben Girma is absolutely inspiring. She dazed the world when she became Harvard Law School’s first deaf and blind graduate in 2013. Since then, she has remained a global phenomenon.
Born in the United States to African parents, Haben was not the type to give in to self-defeat. At the young age of 15, she got involved in Voluntary work by helping to in developing countries on the non-profit platform of Build On. Upon her graduation from the Harvard Law School, she became a Skadden fellow at the Disability Rights Advocate in Berkeley. Thereafter, she took up work as an attorney for people with disabilities.
Haben’s greatest passion is inspiring a positive attitude in people towards those living with a form of disability or the other, and to help disabled individuals gain as much access to books and digital information.
Some of her outstanding global recognitions include Forbes 30 under 30, the BBC Women of Africa Hero and White House Champion of Change.
Indeed, we could not agree more that she is a champion of CHANGE!
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