Before the blind league, ‘I had completely lost hope’
Participants in the game play with a squeaker ball while coaches and children of the players hit goalposts to help them aim their shots. Players shout “voy” (“I’m coming” in Spanish) to warn opponents of their approach and minimize injuries.
All players wear goggles to ensure an equal level of vision.
It is a way for players to regain confidence in their bodies, learn to move without fear and meet other players who are facing similar situations, said Madol.
After practice, Ellon enjoys drinks and biscuits with his teammates outside the stadium. He explains that he was born sighted but started having vision problems at the age of three. He remembers: “Many people said I was bewitched.
The lack of health professionals in South Sudan and the money to pay for them meant that Ellon never received proper care; when he was 12, he was blind.
As a child, he was a keen football player but for the first two years of his blindness, he was stuck at home. “I was frustrated and disappointed. I couldn’t go to school. I completely lost hope, and not playing football was the worst thing of all.”
Ellon’s mother, who is a nurse and a government official, eventually heard about the Rajap Center for the Blind in Juba. “I remember asking my mother how things went at school?” I couldn’t believe that I would meet so many people like me,” said Ellon. At that time, learning to navigate without seeing was his biggest challenge so his mother took him and dropped him off at Rajap each day until he got his bearings and learned to use a cane.
Soon, he learned braille, did well in tests and switched to mainstream school in 2019. “There, I changed the minds of teachers and students, after learning for myself that disability is not inability,” he said. Al Jazeera.
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