The Conversation

Opening a bank account and praying in peace - just two things blind women cannot take for granted in Ethiopia and India. Kim Chakanetsa has a revealing conversation with two women who are taking on these challenges and more. Yetnebersh Nigussie recently won the Right Livelihood Prize - widely referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' - for her work promoting disabled people's rights in her country. Yetnebersh is a lawyer born and raised in rural Ethiopia who lost her eye sight at the age of five. She says growing up blind had its challenges but in the end it was a kind of liberation - she was not considered suitable for early marriage due to her disability, and her mother insisted that she was educated instead. Poonam Vaidya lives in Bangalore and lost her sight seven years ago when she was 21. After the initial shock, she says she tried not to ask, 'why me?' and slowly took hold of her independence again. She went on to further studies, and is now a content writer and blogger. She loves to travel, and is particularly interested in making transport more accessible for blind people. Poonam recently spent a year at the Colorado Center for the Blind in the US where she completed various challenges including travelling to four cities in one day. (l) Yetnebersh Nigussie (credit: Studio Casagrande) (r) Poonam Vaidya (credit: Raj Lalwani)