Hello, I am Naz.
I’m 23, and have been doing voluntary work for a few disability related organisations over the past few years after finishing studying music at university. I am hoping to pursue a career in Yoga teaching within the next year and am a bit of a health and wellness freak!
My eye condition is called Rod Cone Dystrophy. I have almost total night blindness, and low vision during the day. I would describe what I see as nearly black and white, excluding highly saturated colours, with dark patches in my central and peripheral vision, and a grainy old film filter across my whole vision.
Q1. How did you hear about LOOK?
A friend on the internet who has the same condition as me, reached out to say that I would be a good candidate for ‘Look’ as a mentor, and referred me onto them.
Q2. Why did you want to become a Mentor?
I too have a visually impaired counsellor/ mentor, and have seen first hand, the benefits of having someone to help guide you through the darkness from time to time. I want to give what I’ve learnt along the way, and remind VIP’s that they’re not alone and are able to achieve anything that they set their mind to.
Q3. What do you hope to gain from the training?
İ hope to expand my skills on giving advice, listening, and further understanding and learning more about disability rights and the extra support that is available in my community and surrounding areas, so then I will be able to feed it back to any VIP’s that I’m working with.
Q4. What are you most looking forward to from the training?
Becoming a mentor, and having the skill set to help future mentees! İ hope to also get to know the trainees more, to remind myself that there are people out there, just like me who have struggled with their condition, but are wanting to help others despite that.
Q5. What do you hope to achieve as a LOOK mentor?
I’m hoping to achieve happy mentees that can take away what they learn from the sessions into their daily lives, and for them to become aware that our disabilities are only disabling the moment we give in to society’s misconceptions of them.
We have the power to achieve great things, and the only limitations we have are the ones that we create ourselves. I want to help inspire mentee’s to become the best versions of themselves using their disability as a driving force rather than a set back.
