WhatsappImagine if you couldn’t see. Imagine if you couldn’t be independent and travel anywhere alone. For blind people, that is sometimes a reality. But the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind is creating a new reality.
Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind
Before the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind existed, people had to get these special dogs overseas, mainly from America. But there was a problem: when the dogs would come back to Israel, it was different than the United States. The sidewalks, the society, the layouts – nothing is the same.
The Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind changed that. Noach Braun, the founder and director of this center said, “We serve guide dogs for every person in Israel that needs a guide dog. May the person be Christian Arab or Muslim, Jewish. A person is a person.” Braun enables blind people to be independent.
Saleem Sharif
Saleem is blind. Until 8th grade, he was able to partially see and go around by himself. Then things began to decline. He constantly needed someone to help him go anywhere. All he wanted was independence. He didn’t want to rely on anyone for help.
The Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind fulfilled his dream. It is not common in Saleem’s community to have a dog. Many people in his environment are afraid of dogs. They associate dogs with biting and guarding.
But when people ask, Saleem says, “This dog is my eyes.”
Others have said, “Before I had a guide dog, I didn’t feel that I was part of society.”
The tiny Jewish state is changing so many lives, one dog at a time.
