Dubai: The General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs (GDRFA) in Dubai has released the first in a series of books written by people of determination working in the department.
Being showcased at the AccessAbilities Expo 2017 this week, the book titled Hawwa (Eve) Story, which is both in English and Arabic, tells the inspiring story of Hawwa Ahli, a GDRFA Dubai employee with a speech and hearing disorder.
Overcoming challenges
In the book, the 1969-born Hawwa, who was also present at the show, speaks of the challenges she faced and how she overcame them.
She talks of how her family discovered her disability when she was four years old and how she spent 12 years in Kuwait learning the “language of the self” and meeting her best friend and colleague to date Fatima Abbas, who also shares her experience with Hawwa in the book.
Hawwa also talks of her journey post-marriage and the initial fear she was engulfed in when she heard she was carrying. “Despite the fact that I realised that my hopes were coming true, I felt terribly scared and worried that my embryo won’t be healthy…,” she writes.
But all was well and Hawwa recollects how her little girl learnt to communicate with her through the sense of touch. After discussing the challenges of family life, she describes her hunt for a job.
Having found a job at GDRFA Dubai, she calls it her “safe haven”.
“Praise be to Allah for whatever He has taken away from us and deep gratitude for whatever He has given us generously,” writes Hawwa, who has won a number of prestigious awards at her workplace.
