By Andrea Hendricks
– Advocating for Lasting Change
Bartica-born educator and disability-rights advocate is seeking support for specialist eye surgery overseas—while continuing to serve students and advocate for persons with disabilities.
BORN in Bartica, Region Seven, Asif Khan moved to Georgetown with his family after it became clear that he was living with visual impairment—relocating for the educational support he would need. Today, at 29 years old, he is a teacher of students who are blind and visually impaired, and an emerging national voice on disability rights—now preparing for further medical intervention that could preserve and improve the vision he has.
In Georgetown, Region Four, Khan began his formal schooling at St Agnes Primary and St Rose’s High School. He recalls a childhood shaped by adaptation, but not defined by exclusion. “My childhood was as normal as that of any other child, in spite of my visual impairment. I was engaged in all activities, as was any other child,” Khan said. After completing his secondary education at the sixth-form level, he earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations at the University of Guyana in 2019 and later completed an associate degree in Special Education and Disabilities at the Cyril Potter College of Education in 2024.
His path into education began in 2017, when he entered the profession—work he continues to this day with a focus on learners who are blind and visually impaired. He described teaching as something he grew into rather than planned. “Teaching would have called me. It wasn’t my intention; I was seeking financial independence,” Khan told this publication. While his sight poses real challenges, he said technology helps him meet the demands of the job: “My disability doesn’t affect my work as a teacher in any significant way. I would adapt with the help of technology to get work done.”
Alongside teaching, Khan has built a record of advocacy that began when he was 15, attending workshops and speaking on disability issues. That foundation led to the establishment of his NGO, Disability Affairs Guyana Inc., founded about a year ago and still in its operational stage, with a focus on disability rights at the national level. Through the organisation, he aims to support persons with all forms of disabilities and strengthen advocacy through training, capacity-building, sensitisation and programmes intended to improve policy development in the interest of the disability community. He has also encouraged NGOs to work together in support of inclusive access to education, housing, employment and health opportunities, and to be part of policymaking for an inclusive Guyana.
Khan’s advocacy is deeply personal, rooted in years without clear answers about his eyesight. His parents sought explanations from multiple doctors, but he said there was no immediate diagnosis in his early years. It was only at age 18 that he was diagnosed with keratoconus—a condition affecting the cornea, the shape of which can change and become thin over time—compounded by a cataract. “Without a diagnosis from childhood to being a teenager, I had to adapt to visual impairment throughout my school years,” he said. “I would have faced challenges coming through the school system,” Khan recounted, noting how access to information in accessible formats affected learning and reading.
As an adult, he said hazards can test daily independence many take for granted—such as crossing roads, uneven pavements, and open manholes. Still, he maintains a determined outlook. He said, “Acceptance of whatever situation one finds oneself in and showing a willingness to accept it will always lead to success.” After a treatment option became available following his diagnosis, Khan underwent cataract surgery in 2024 and regained some vision in one eye. He still requires another cataract operation, and he also needs a full or partial corneal transplant, which he said must be performed in Orlando, Florida, USA.
With the procedure abroad expected to cost about GYD$3 million—covering accommodation, airfare, the medical procedure and doctors’ fees—Khan is appealing for help from the public and private sectors. He said support would ease the financial burden and give him the chance to improve and preserve his vision: “This is very important to me. Even if I can regain a percentage of sight, it matters, as I hope to preserve what I have,” Khan explained. While acknowledging improvements in access to medical assistance for persons living with disabilities through the public system, he noted that complex cases can still require international intervention.
For Khan, the work he does in classrooms and training sessions is part of a wider argument he has been making for years: that accessible education is not a “special” add-on, but a basic requirement that determines whether children with disabilities can participate fully in national life. He has said that access is shaped by simple, practical considerations—materials that can be read, devices that can be used and teaching approaches that do not treat disability as a barrier to ambition. In his view, the difference between inclusion and exclusion can come down to whether information is available in formats students can actually use, and whether schools are prepared to adjust how lessons are delivered so that learners who are blind or visually impaired are not left behind from the start.
That perspective is sharpened by the everyday realities he continues to navigate outside the classroom. Visual impairment, he has said, does not only affect reading and study; it intersects with safety, mobility and independence in ways that are easy for others to overlook. The same obstacles he described—roads to cross, uneven pavements and open manholes—also reflect larger questions about how public spaces and services are designed, and for whom they are designed. Support for his overseas procedure, therefore, carries meaning beyond one person’s medical need: preserving and improving his vision would help him remain active in the teaching and advocacy roles he has built, and it underscores the case he continues to make that people living with disabilities should not have to pause their lives to access essential care. As he prepares for the next stage of treatment, Khan continues to teach, organise and speak up—appealing for assistance to meet the estimated costs of his surgery abroad and urging the public and private sectors to stand with the disability community in practical ways. Anyone willing to assist can contact him at 592-647-8700. Contributions can be made via MMG or Republic Bank Account No. 300000135051, Chequing Account, Diamond Branch.
