We’ve been waiting for a few minutes when Melanie Stephens strides out on to the verandah of the Salvation Army Girls Hostel. Dressed in a grey pant suit and pointy black shoes, she wears her confidence like a tangible thing. It only falters for a moment as she hesitates on the threshold, but when I say her name, she turns immediately and stretches out her hand, her motions so assured, her gaze so direct, that even though I know Melanie is completely blind, I’m convinced for one moment that she can see me. But her eyes are clouded, nearly the same shade of grey as her clothes and she blinks only rarely.
Once she is seated, Melanie says she was born with near perfect sight, albeit with some degree of night blindness. By the time she was 11 however, she was completely blind, high pressure in her eyes having damaged her optic nerve irreversibly. Despite her disability or perhaps because of it, Melanie is indisputably an overachiever. In school she seemed to have held every position of note – from head of the debating team to head prefect. Growing up she was a star of track and field, winning three gold medals, six silver and three bronze at national level sporting events for the disabled. She won an all island short story competition organised by the Social Services Department with a submission in Sinhala for her story ‘Tears of Love.’
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An aficionado of western music, she played the piano, sang in a choir and composed her own tunes. She is also an accomplished chess player – signing up for the Ceylon Mercantile Union chess championship she found herself playing against the previous year’s (sighted) champion in her first match. Though she eventually lost, she held him at bay for three hours, so impressing the judges that they gave her a special award. (She knew the layout of the board by feel alone.)
Throughout she has been gainfully employed – having been trained at the Sri Lanka Federation of the Visually Handicapped in IT and telephone operation as a teenager, she worked at several places, the last two being Lanka Bell and Aviva Insurance. She’s a Junior Executive at the latter, having been headhunted after impressing her superiors at Lanka Bell where she handled over 1,500 calls a day. “I’m good with customers,” she says, explaining that she was awarded the Best Telephone Operator of the Year by the Lions Club in 2007.
For Melanie every item on her list of accomplishments is an argument for why disabled people can be as productive as their able counterparts. She believes that companies like Aviva do good by giving them such opportunities – she only wishes that more corporates would do so. She is a fierce champion for the rights of the disabled. “I’ve always worked harder than people who could see,” she says, admitting quite frankly that having something to prove and a strong competitive instinct have powered her through the worst of times.
“I was really down, when I knew my eyes weren’t going to be cured,” says Melanie, explaining that she struggled with intense depression as a teenager and even contemplated suicide. Her case is particularly tragic, considering that early medical intervention might have saved her sight – but Melanie says her family didn’t take her to a hospital even when she was in great pain. Melanie’s memories of herself as a young girl are predominantly painful ones, characterised by parental neglect and ever worsening eyesight. “I come from a broken home,” Melanie says, describing herself as “twice disabled.” Abandoned by both parents in succession for long periods of time, she was grateful to be cared for by a family friend, a widow, Doreen Sebastian Pullai. “Though Aunty Doreen had four children of her own, she always took care of me.”
Since, Mrs. Pullai passed away three years ago, Melanie misses her terribly and cries as she recalls years of support and strength. She has lived at the Salvation Hostel for years. Here she does everything for herself, including her laundry and ironing, and prides herself on keeping her room immaculate. Each of these small tasks represents a triumph of will, and Melanie is determined to be as independent as she can. “I am here today because of my friends and my God,” she says, counting among the former doctors and good Samaritans who have helped enrol her in schools and found her places to stay.” Still, I don’t like to ask people for help. I want people to know that disability does not have to be an obstacle.” |
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