“My vision went from 100 to zero” – Rosemarie Ramit tells her story from blindness to success

“I didn’t want people to pity me because I was blind” – Rosemarie Ramit

Despite the common daunting challenges associated with living with a disability, Rosemarie Ramit has defied a lot of odds. At 13, she was diagnosed with severe panuveitis, which cast a shadow over her world. She was at the time attending primary school, and felt early threats creeping up on her, and they later translated into a testing period for her.
What were described as debilitating headaches she was experiencing in looking at the school’s blackboard were the first signs of what then gradually became blurred vision for young Rosemarie.
Constant pain in her eyes and head pushed her to seek relief by any means, and as the headaches rapidly increased, she was taken to the hospital for a medical checkup.
Plagued by fear of these ominous developments, her parents asked what was causing their daughter’s illness, and medics responded that it was simply an allergy that would go away.
With symptoms increasing in severity, she was taken out of school, but the headaches increased in frequency and her eyes took on a reddish colour.
“My vision went from 100 to zero,” Rammit told this publication, and that occurred in the span of two weeks’ time.
Her voice resonating with resilience, Rosemarie relayed that medical personnel then realized that her condition was much more serious than allergies, and she was then diagnosed with panuveitis.
With the arrival of that daunting day when doctors had no choice but to tell her parents about the severity of her eye condition, her parents were unable to comprehend what their daughter was experiencing, and continued hoping she would retain her decreasing sight.

In search of cure
As the hunt for a cure began, Rosemarie was rushed to other medical facilities in Guyana, and was given scores of medications, ranging from steroids to eyedrops, until she came to the regrettable realisation that the medications were forcing her to stop going to school altogether. This was as a result of the side effects the medication had on her young fragile body.
“The medications I used caused me to get cataracts,” she explained, while speaking with Guyana Times.
As one problem spawned another, she found herself confronting new difficulties, and she again sought professional medical assistance. Two months after her diagnosis, she travelled to Brazil and spent 18 months at her uncle’s home pursuing a solution to her problem. The exact regimen of treatment she had undergone in Guyana was recommended for her condition, but this time, her body was not responding to any of the medications.
She said the Brazilian doctors told her the condition was a recurring one, and even as her body was fighting the condition, it kept striking again.

Acceptance, no pity
Accepting that there was no definite cure to what she was experiencing, she returned home to Guyana, where she found herself visually impaired and having her family members taking care of her for the next 2-3 years.
While being home, the idea of coming back into the real world and socializing with persons played with her consciousness, but, “I didn’t want people to pity me because I was blind.”
She said it was very difficult to accept that she was visually impaired because she did not want anyone to see her as a different human being, and she also did not want to walk with a white cane.
Her father was the one who found out about the Guyana Society for the Blind, and registered her with the Guyana Council of Organisations For Persons With Disabilities. She then found scores of advocates in the society who pushed her to do computer training, and she learnt to read computer screens while being blind.
She also met Programme Coordinator Ganesh Singh, who inspired her by telling her about other visually impaired persons.
“You are really smart. You have a lot of potential, and I don’t want that to be wasted,” Rosemarie recalled being told by Ganesh Singh.
He introduced her to a CXC project which he had planned for persons living with disabilities in Guyana.
The idea of the initiative was that all the text books would be translated into a digital format to help those who are visually impaired. The books were read and recorded, and persons who were visually impaired would listen to each chapter.
Rosemarie and a number of other visually impaired persons were enrolled in the project, and within 14 months, she and the other students were the first batch of students in Guyana to write CXC on computers.
She attained Five Grade One passes and was the top student of the group. She then decided to pursue higher education while advocating for persons living with disabilities, and immediately applied to the Cyril Potter College of Education to pursue a career in teaching.
She graduated from CPCE in 2016, and started her teaching career as part of the Education Ministry’s Resource Unit for the Blind and Visually Impaired. And she graduated from the University of Guyana with an Associate Degree in Social Work in 2018.
Rosemarie’s narrative has swerved from a path veiled in darkness to one illuminated by hope. Embracing the unknown, she has embarked on a journey of fearlessness, transcending personal achievements to immerse herself in activism. Her pivotal moment came through participation in the IFES-implemented USAID Youth Advocacy, Linkages, Leadership in Elections and Society (Youth ALLIES) programme. Here, she unearthed the transformative potential of her voice and opinions, catalysing her journey towards advocacy and societal change. (Mishael Henry)