The Story of Ruth Baveghems

Oct 12, 2008 News

Defying the odds of being blindBy Sharmain Cornette
Engulfed in a world of blackness, but yet so brilliantly illuminated by her radiant personality, 10-year-old Ruth Baveghems has been able to defy the odds and has learnt to live an almost normal life though blind.

The young child, who is capable of doing just about everything for herself, is a student of the Resource Unit for Blind and Visually Impaired Students, located at the St Agnes Primary School.

There, with the assistance of teachers, particularly Ms Vanessa King, Ruth has over the past eight years of her life been learning to identify letters so that she could read using a Braille typewriter (a machine to help blind persons read).

According to an outspoken Ruth during a recent interview with this newspaper, she does not intend to limit herself to just learning to read, pointing out that she plans on becoming a doctor when she is older.

Emphasising on the fact that medical officials were unable to fix her eyes, Ruth says that she will work earnestly towards ensuring that she is capable of relieving ailing persons of their pains and deformity so that they would not have to live with a disability as in her case.

But if only things had gone differently on that fateful day Ruth could have been just as normal as the average child.

It was the 10th day of March, 1998 and Abigail Baveghems was just about seven months along in her pregnancy; nonetheless it felt as though labour pains were upon her.

Ruth and her classmate Makala during a reading session.

Taking no chances she requested to be taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where indeed her first daughter and second child was forced into the world prematurely.

According to Abigail, an attending medical doctor had informed her that the child who she later named Ruth might have been birthed prematurely because of a hypertensive problem she (Abigail) had.

The tiny infant was so unprepared for the world at the time that she had to be placed in an incubator for a few days.

However, on the fifth day Abigail was able to take home her newborn baby to her 564 East Ruimveldt, Georgetown, home.

But little did Abigail know that her troubles were far from over.
Two weeks had passed since she had brought baby home but for some reason the young child would not open her eyes.

Abigail, from time to time, would attempt to assist the child to open her eyes which appeared to have an abnormal colour.

That, however, did not worry the young mother at the time since she had given birth to a son seven years earlier and had a similar experience.

At that time, she had rushed him to the hospital fearing that he was going blind with the unusual green and grey colours she had seen in his eyes. Her fears were appeased by a doctor who informed her that that was the colour of the child’s eye and indeed every thing would turn out fine.

And so she accepted at first that Ruth’s eyes would probably be just like her brother’s.
But the constant refusal of the child to open her eyes begun to nudge at Abigail’s motherly instinct which resulted in her taking the child back to the GPHC to have her eyes examined.

According to Abigail, a doctor informed her that due to the premature birth, the child’s cornea did not develop thus she would not be able to see.

Though distraught by the revelation, Abigail said that she was not prepared at the time to have a blind child and therefore visited a specialist to get a second opinion, in hopes of hearing that something could be done to fix the problem.

And indeed the specialist gave a similar report as that from the public hospital but added that it was possible for the child to have a cornea transplant.

Before Abigail knew what was going on, plans were being streamlined by the doctor to have the child be sent overseas to have the operation. But the arrangements would end abruptly when the doctor died a few months later under mysterious circumstances, leaving Abigail in a quandary.

Reality would then set in and she was forced to come to terms with the fact that she would have to raise a blind child.

Her world got even more difficult when the child’s father decided to leave her to rear the child alone, though he kept sending money from time to time but however stopped in 2006.

And it was no easy task raising Ruth since, according to Abigail, she had no idea how to teach her to walk, eat or do anything that a normal child could.

However, she would soon learn of the Resource Unit at St Agnes Primary School.
Grateful that there was a way that her daughter could gain an education, at the age of two she took her to the school.

There Abigail said that she met a teacher by the name of Ms Ingrid Semple at the Unit who helped her to better understand how to deal with Ruth.

Abigail got to know another teacher Ms Ingrid Peters, who was also blind ,and it was through her that she really learned how to teach Ruth how to bathe, brush her teeth, dress herself and even how to help with household chores.

Abigail said that Ruth has been of great assistance to her, adding that she has helped her considerably even as she thanked her lucky stars that she gave birth to another daughter, Abina, who has aided significantly with Ruth’s personality development.

In fact, according to her, Ruth has learnt to ride a bicycle on the street while towing her sister who guides her every move. She is also able to insert and listen to DVDs, according to Abigail, who related that Ruth’s favourite movie is Dennis the Menace.

She explained that the blind child has even been able to mimick some of the outrageous actions of the young movie character, giving her the suspicion that she probably could see.

Abigail and her family members have also been able to help Ruth enjoy events such as shows at the National Culture Centre, Mashramani and even more recently Gymkhana by explaining in detail and in some instances allowing her to touch some characters.

And though ensuring that Ruth is able to interact in the society in most ways has proven to be a major challenge sometimes, Abigail claims that she does not regret having a blind child but loathes the fact that her child’s academic progress might be halted after she out-grows the programme at the Unit.

Abigail, who is an Assistant Senior Mistress at the East Ruimveldt Primary School, said that she has written numerous letters and emails around the world in an attempt to find an organisation or even an individual to help her in the quest of furthering her daughter’s education, adding that she is even willing to offer free teaching service to any facility abroad in exchange for the education.

However, according to an official at Eye Care Guyana, there may very well be a possibility that some help could be rendered to further the education of blind persons should an earnest request be made.