This is a feature story I wrote which appeared this week in Sunday Punch, Pangasinan’s leading newspaper.

Entitled “Hail to the First Filipino Braille International Awardee”, I find this story inspiring both to those with complete senses and to the visually-impaired or other persons with disabilities. I’d like to share this with you.

Kindly read on.

This totally blind woman, who graduated Magna Cum Laude in college and the first Filipino Braille International awardee, believes she is “stepping out of the dark into a world so bright” with the use of Braille and God.

Minnie Aveline Juan of San Carlos City, 21, said her mission is “simply to be of service to others in whatever way I can through my God-given talents and to inspire others.”

“It’s up to God on what and how exactly I would be able to use my talent ,” Juan told this writer during an interview inside her parents’ office at the Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation (VMUF) here. Her mother, Dr. Ma Lilia Posadas-Juan is the university president while her dad, Dr. Angelo Juan, is the vice president for administration. Both are medical doctors.

Full of life, Minnie, called as such for being born literally “mini” as she weighed only 2.2 pounds, prematurely born at six and a half months and had to stay inside an incubator for one month, said she is still thankful to God.

She was only partially blind when she was born until she reached four when a nerve in her head had a hemorrhage and she had to be operated on three times.” By God’s grace, I became blind,” a smiling Juan said.

“I never question God” Why, why, why me?”. I always believe that He has plan for me, for everybody. He did not make me visually impaired for no cause. There must be a reason,” Juan said.

At her young age, Juan has achieved so much. A consistent valedictorian since her elementary grade at the Virgen Milagrosa Child Learning Center here, to high school at the Virgen Milagrosa Special Science High School also here and on to college at the Trinity College in Quezon City where she took up Bachelor of Arts in English and was named the batch valedictorian having gotten the highest average among the three magna cum laude the time they graduated last March.

She was part of a regular class in Nursery to grade four and had other visually-impaired classmate, while the rest were normally sighted. From grade five to college, she was the only blind student in her class.

“It was really double effort, proper adjustment and strong determination,” she said.

Her entry “Braille to a Bright Future” was chosen by the World Blind Union-Asia Pacific Onkyo Braille Essay Selection Committee as the Highly Commended Essay during the celebration of the International Louis Braille Day held last January 4 at the VMUF compound.

The award handed to her was signed by Naoto Otsuki, chairman and chief executive officer of Onkyo Corporation. It reads,” We certify that you have a good command of Braille, and we are pleased that you are using this knowledge to the fullest to enhance your independence and self-confidence. We therefore confirm you to be the proud winner of the above-mentioned prize (Fine Works-under 25 years old) in the 3rd Onkyo Braille Essay Award Contest, sponsored by Onkyo Corporation and The Mainichi Newspapers “The Braille Mainichi” in collaboration with WBU-AP. This memorial plaque is being presented to you to show our praise and deep admiration”.

She also got a cash prize.

It was not actually her first time to win in a writing contest.

When she was in high school, she had won in feature writing contests and qualified for the regional and national levels.

In her recent award-winning essay, Juan narrated how useful Braille is in her life. She said that while her sighted classmates were learning to read with their eyes and to write with pencil and paper, she could do so in a “special way”—“reading with my fingertips and writing with a stylus and a slate enclosing a piece of Braille paper”.

She said college life was not easy but it would have been much more difficult without Braille. She began to rely on the computer with a screen reader in order to accomplish her written work. She also had a scanner and text-to-speech software to enable her to read books that were not available in Braille.

But she said the accessibility of these gadgets did not cause her to set Braille aside. In fact, she said, Braille came in handiest in note-taking during lectures. This was facilitated by the use of a portable note-taking machine which she said she would never have been able to operate without Braille.

Her secret to her academic excellence was, with the help of her teachers, the textbooks were transcribed from print to Braille, thereby enabling her to study her lessons ahead of time. The examination question papers were also translated into Braille and this enabled her to work independently. “Thus, by using Braille, I was able to obtain very good marks,” she said in her essay.

Besides helping her to be an exceptional student, Juan said Braille literacy also opened up many other doors to her. She was able to do what she loved doing—enjoy reading all kinds of books on Science, History, Literature, languages and the Holy Scriptures. “For me, reading has always been a great source of entertainment, knowledge, wisdom and inspiration”, she said.

It was in a regular school where Juan was taught to read and write Braille by a special education teacher who was blind herself. Gertrudez Benigno, who was her mentor from elementary to high school, was like her second mother. They both cried when Juan was already in college and Benigno had to go back to her hometown Ilocos to also teach other visually-impaired children.

“I want to be like her. She has a noble mission,” Juan said.
Right now, Juan also teaches a six-year old blind boy in their family-owned school. She said she sees herself in him.
Juan said encouragement from her family, friends and prayers helped her a lot.

“Simply don’t lose hope. God always has reasons for allowing this to happen. Blindness should not hinder one from living a normal life. Blindness is not a burden. It’s a blessing. No matter how insignificant you feel, to God you are special. That should not make you any different. There’s always hope and there’s always a God who never forsakes us,” Juan advised other blind people.

Right now, aside from teaching, Juan is also pursuing her second course, Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education to specialize later on Special Education. A talented singer, she also joined the faculty choir and “reads” inspirational books in her spare time.
On Sundays whenever she’s assigned to read the Scriptures in their chapel for the Mass, she would have the readings written in Braille and read them.

She also enjoys texting in her cellular phone even in wee hours.
She advised students, who have complete senses, not to waste the opportunity given them to be educated. “Kung ako nga bulag nakaya ko po. Dapat mag-aral din silang mabuti,” she said.