24 Feb 2023

A New Country, A New Life – With Minette Samaroo

This month on Living Blind, Naomi Hazlett is joined by Minette Samaroo, to share her journey. From Guyana to Canada, from incapacity to capability. From exclusion and isolation, to social inclusion and empowerment.

Born with Retinitis Pigmentosa and having lived with vision loss for most of her life, Minette was born in Guyana, South America, and migrated to Canada in September 2014. She is employed at Apple Sherway Gardens as a Sales Specialist. She is currently pursuing a BA in Psychology at York University, and since this interview, has graduated from the Assistive Technology Apprenticeship Program here at Balance.

Since 2017, Minette has worked with the Alliance For Equality Of Blind Canadians(AEBC) to advocate for social change. She has designed and delivered consultations and workshops on meaningful employment, accessible education, housing, and customer service.

In addition to her work with the AEBC, Minette is an Accessibility Tester for Fable Tech, and serves as co-chair for The Accessible Housing Network and The Ontario Assistive Devices Program Working Group. Her ultimate goal is to remove inequality, discrimination, and injustice in order to make this world a better place for each of us.

Minette talks to Naomi about her life growing up with vision loss in Guiana, the challenges she faced while migrating to Canada, the freedom to work and manifest her potential changing the perception of disability, and her aspirations in counselling psychology. Her resilience is also rooted in her embrace of the Christian faith, which began as an isolated child in Guiana, and Christianity's embrace of her.

Links:

Follow Minette on LinkedInand Facebook.

Check out her appearance in a promotional video for The Disability Advantage Training Program.

What did you think of this episode? Get in touch with the podcast by joining our Listeners Facebook group, or by sending us an email at LivingBlindPodcast@BalanceFBA.org.

Follow Balance For Blind Adults on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,and Youtube.

The show notes and transcription for this podcast can be found at BalanceFBA.org/Podcast.

Donate to BALANCE: BalanceFBA.org

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