World Polio Day: Meet a polio champion in UAE touching lives from a wheelchair

Dubai: On World Polio Day observed on October 24, a Jordanian expat in the UAE shines as a polio champion who has made several strides in work and personal life despite being a wheelchair user.

Morad Shadeed, 45, was diagnosed with polio at just eight months old after suffering from a severe fever back home. In 1982, his family moved to Dubai, following their father’s relocation.

“My father worked at a company in Dubai and got me admitted to Rashid Hospital for treatment,” Morad recalled.

His treatment, which included surgery for both legs, went on for two years. Morad said he had been able to pull himself into a standing position before he was diagnosed with polio. “After the treatment in Dubai, I was able to stand again when I was around five,” he recalled.

After that, he began attending Salman Farsi Private School in Sharjah. At home, he either crawled or relied on his parents and elder sister for support. His father would lift him onto the school bus, and the bus attendant would carry him down. “My father kept a wheelchair in the school for me,” he said.

Excelled academically

In 1999, the family returned to Jordan, where Morad continued his education and began using a wheelchair regularly. He first attended a special needs school, where he learnt to swim, before moving to a regular school, where he excelled academically, achieving top scores in high school — an accomplishment unmatched in his family. “I became the number one in studies in my high school. None in the family had achieved such high scores,” he said proudly.

However, as he reached his teenage years, Morad’s muscles weakened more rapidly. By the time he completed his teenage years, the weakening of the muscles supporting his spine led to further complications, including kyphosis, or hunchback, due to deteriorating back muscles. “Then the wheelchair became an integral part of my life,” Morad recalled. He said he recognised that Dubai would be the best place for him to thrive.

Back in Dubai

After graduating in computer science and software programming, Morad flew back alone to Dubai in 2001. “Ever since, Dubai has been my home.”

He initially lived with his uncle and later with friends. “Till I got married in 2014, I mostly lived alone, doing all the household chores by myself.” Throughout this time, he took on various jobs and expanded his skills by completing multiple certificate courses. His roles included assistant production manager, production coordinator, quantity surveyor, sales coordinator, estimation and cost manager, and even project manager. Currently, he serves as a sales director at a real estate company.

Business activities

“My roles and activities have included setting up business development, estimation, and costing for aluminium projects, overseeing technical stages and production workshops, managing projects both in the workshop and on-site, and securing multi-million dirham deals. I have never faced any discrimination at workplaces. In fact, my interventions have helped make my workplaces, including under construction worksites, more accessible for wheelchair users like me,” he said.

PoD friendly

Having travelled to various countries, Morad vouches for the fact that he has not seen facilities for People of Determination (PoD), particularly for wheelchair users, as comprehensive as those in Dubai. “Almost all buildings are accessible for us, and there are special parking facilities for the PoD. The public transportation is free of charge, and there is a 50 per cent discount on special taxi service,” he pointed out.

Morad also appreciates the floating wheelchair service provided at Dubai beaches by the Dubai Municipality. “When I came over to Dubai, a friend had helped me swim in the beaches. But, over a period of time, I stopped that habit. I felt extremely happy and excited to go into the sea again in the floating wheelchair after a gap of eight years,” he recalled.

Leads by example

Instead of expecting others to volunteer for PoDs, Morad leads by example through his volunteer activities. He started volunteering in 2008 and has been actively supporting blood donation camps, relief packaging campaigns, services for special needs centres, and other volunteering activities. He was in charge of a team handling the packaged boxes in the latest relief campaign titled UAE Stands with Lebanon.

Morad said he also works with authorities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to make more places accessible. He never misses a chance to spread awareness about the need for polio vaccination, especially when he goes back home. “I have got all my children vaccinated,” he pointed out.

His message for others like him is: “Keep believing you are a better person and equal to everyone else. You can make your dreams come true as long as you have faith in yourself and in Allah.”

He credits his parents, Ali and Haliemah, especially his mother, for instilling in him the value of equality, and his wife for sharing his life with that same belief.

Morad met his wife, Fatna, from Morocco in Dubai and he felt that he had found the right partner for his life. “We got married on Valentine’s Day in 2014, ‘14/02/14’. Now, they are living happily with their four children. “One of them is autistic, but we are doing our best for him,” he added.