"Blind dinner" helps raise awareness in Lebanon

A group of blindfolded Lebanese sat down to enjoy a dinner in a restaurant last week in an effort to raise awareness and understanding on the life and needs of blind people.

The “blind dinner” allows people a chance to dine like the blind in a bid to help them build better a understanding of what life is like for the visually impaired. This event is organized by a group of Lebanese medical students who have formed the Lebanese Medical Students International committee.

Flyers of the event read “Dare to see how they don’t see? Experience a blind date with a visually disabled person”.

Participants are welcomed at the entrance of the restaurant and blindfolded with black scarves before being guided to their seats.

“We loved hosting this dinner in collaboration with the NGO Youth Association for the Blind. The objective of this dinner is first to know how blind people live their lives on a normal day to day basis as well as giving people an opportunity to know them better. Secondly, we get to spend a couple of hours with them and experience what it would be like to be blind,” said Ghady Abu Daher, one of the organizers.

Daher said that the restaurant printed its menu in Braille for this event in the hope that other restaurants in Lebanon would follow suit and create menus for the blind.

“It’s good to know that people can feel what we feel when they experience this dinner. They should know we can go out and lead normal lives,” says Khouloud, a blind young woman sitting down to a dinner of chicken wings and hamburgers.

Participants both blind and blindfolded appreciated the initiative of the dinner.

“I always like to participate in events that bring people closer, so that we can understand each other more because everyone has his own personality and way of seeing things in life. Every person has a different look on life according to his conditions and circumstances. We are here to live together, not for everyone to live alone,” said a blindfolded Joseph Jaber.

The Lebanese Medical Students International Committee said they aim to organize similar event in the future.

Al Arabiya