Wheelchair-bound girl finds guardian angel in Dubai classmate

Haritha (L) and Namitha were given Year of Zayed Special Award by their school. - Supplied photo

Dubai - Namitha was given 'Year of Zayed Special Award' for her uncompromising determination and hard work.

The friendship between two Grade 10 Dubai students will restore people's faith in humanity. A friendship so strong that their school, Gems Our Own English High School, Dubai (Girls) felicitated them on the occasion of the Year of Zayed.
Namitha was given 'Year of Zayed Special Award' for her uncompromising determination and hard work while Haritha was given the award for her selfless humanitarian gestures.
Namitha lost partial sight and mobility due to a brain tumour (which has now been removed) and was finding it hard to adjust in her class as many looked upon as 'the girl in the wheelchair'. This is when a classmate, Haritha, became her guardian angel and helped Namitha regain her confidence.
Seeing her physical condition, it was hard for Namitha's school to take her back as they were worried how she would manage studies. However, with her determination, Namitha was given admission at Gems Our Own English High School, Dubai (Girls), in Grade 9 by the end of October 2017.
Things were not easy as anticipated as Namitha returned to a class were all faces were new and unfamiliar, "some hostile". Above all, it seemed too ambitious for a physically weak girl of partially impaired vision to master the tough CBSE portions of one year in less than four months. But things changed when Haritha came forward and extended her helping hand.
Recalling how they became friends, Haritha said: "Namitha once softly asked me if she could sit next to me and I was overwhelmed and decided to help. Since Namitha can't write notes, she takes copies of my notes and learns from them. I do not consider her merely my classmate. She is like my sister."
The bond between them grew and one could always spot Haritha behind Namitha's wheelchair. Haritha helped her in completing the notes and compensating for lost classes. Slowly, other classmates became friendlier.
With the support of her teachers and her new-found best friend, Namitha was able to perform well in her Grade 9 exams. She wrote the exam with the help of a scribe who wrote as she spoke the answers as she cannot write smoothly.
Namitha, who has now started speaking coherently, said: "Whatever I tell Haritha, she does it without any qualms and has never declined any of my requests."
Earlier, before Namitha had this debilitating tumour, she was a bright student who wanted to be a doctor. "Since my childhood I'd wanted to be a doctor but now I have left everything to God." The teenager dreams of living a normal life one day and that propels her to move forward.
Commenting on their achievement, executive principal of their school Thomas Mathew, said: "We, at GEMS Our Own Dubai, are proud to have girls who possess the heart of gold, strength of a strong tide and the perseverance of an ant during harvest. It is girls like Namitha and Haritha who reinstate in us the belief that obstacles are only as large or small as our mind makes them out to be. Kudos to both the students."

How life changed for Namitha