Dubai: Nothing compares to the sense of accomplishment when a fresh graduate leaves school to be part of a corporate environment and its work force.
Many of us get to experience this feeling but the reality is hardly the same for individuals with special needs.
Although the integration of individuals with special needs has greatly improved in the past decade, a lot needs to be done in order for society to completely accept the notion and work hard in welcoming these individuals in our every day lives.
Shogan Khetrapal, Ankana Arun Uppin, Abid Gulam and Shrenik Shah are just four of the 25 students from Al Noor Center that have been integrated successfully in the work force.
They work in different fields, but are equally enthusiastic about their occupation — trying their best to learn and improve and in turn exceeding their employers' expectations.
"I never want to change my job; I love it here... " 26-year-old Shogan, who works as a salesman in a fashion boutique along Al Dhiyafa, said.
At ease
Shogan, who has previously worked in a bank, seemed at ease while doing his daily chores of store organisation and handling customers.
His employer and shop owner Juhi Yasmeen Khan is a great supporter of special needs organisations and works towards including such individuals in society.
"I [have] always worked with special needs organisations; it was a personal and social matter for me.
"Since I hired Shogan in the boutique, a lot of colleagues and acquaintances got inspired. "People personally asked me for CV's of other special needs students that they wished to train and include in their companies..." Juhi, a fashion designer and boutique owner, said.
While Khan understands the limitations of being an individual with special needs, she tries her best to avoid giving Shogan any special treatment in order for him to be truly treated as an equal.
"... I still try my best to make him learn from his mistakes, to enforce discipline when necessary and always remind him of his responsibilities," Khan said. This notion is also shared by Abid Gulam's employer Bassam Al Matni, human resource manager at Thermo.
"From day one I didn't treat him differently or allowed anyone to treat him differently" Al Matni said.
The 22-year-old, who works as an office assistant in the company, has a huge array of responsibilities which include delivering mail to checking company documents.
"I didn't want for this to seem like charity. I treat him like any other employee and expect him to deliver and stick to his responsibilities.
Although he was rather difficult to handle in the beginning, he quickly learnt what he was supposed to do. He is very clever and hard working..." Al Matni said.
Ankana and Shrenik, both work as full-time office assistants in Arabian Adventures.
Publications
While Shrenik submits customer dta and tour information, Ankana organises the company's publications and stationary.
"We understand that both of them have different capabilities and that's how we assigned their jobs. Shrenik is very clever and managed to quickly adapt to computer-related work.
"He has even shown a great ability of distinguishing different languages.
"He can identify French, German, Italian or Spanish by just looking at the lettering of the brochures that we have available in different languages for customers," Conny Geiger, senior tours executive with Arabian Adventures, said.
Why do you think it is hard for individuals with special needs to fit in to the workplace? Is society to blame for this?
