“YOU don’t know what you have until it’s gone” is quite a popular adage, but one that took on special meaning to Lata Devi Jagmohan when she lost her sight about 10 years ago. She was just 18 and at the height of pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher. It’s a profession that she had always admired, but once she lost her sight, she had to scrap all hopes of pursuing it.

Growing up, Lata Devi, called ‘Streema’ always had an issue with her eyes but nothing that she took seriously. Born in Skeldon and raised in Canefield, Canje, in a very poor household, there wasn’t a chance for her to get an eye checkup and early diagnosis.

So whatever the problem was with her eyes, it progressed. One day when she was in school, at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute (NATI), having graduated from the Berbice Educational Institute with eight subjects, she suffered a life-changing event.
“My eyes took a drastic turn, and really started to irritate me. I had to be sent home from school, and since that day, I never went back,” Lata Devi recalled in an interview with Pepperpot Magazine a few days ago.

Because of her economic background, she’d often consider the value of getting a good education and a good job. She felt she was finally getting somewhere during her second year at NATI, but tragedy struck. She could no longer pursue the dreams she had in mind. “Then is when you know the value of what you had. It changed the way I looked at life,” she expressed.

Lata Devi has an inherited eye condition that causes her cornea to scar. Once she left school and began hospital ‘runnings,’ she was told by doctors that she had lost her right eye and was going to lose the left one if she did not do a cornea transplant. She went to Trinidad to do this operation twice, but they both failed.

“I have little to no sight in my left eye also, but there’s still some light entering, so it’s something to talk about. I can make out colours if they’re up close and make out some movements if someone walks past me very close,” she explained.

It was an emotional roller coaster at first, but once she was helped to come out of an immensely ‘dark hole’ by her family and friends, Lata Devi decided to move on with her life. She’s now at the University of Guyana (UG), studying to become a social worker.

“I think that if I had the support that I want to give as a social worker, things would have been easier for me to digest and cope with,” she shared as to her reason for wanting to become a social worker. “I had to learn to do it on my own and that’s not a bad thing.”

Currently, she’s an orientation and mobility officer helping to train others with a vision disability how to use their cane, smart devices, and technology, and live their lives without sight. As such, she still feels that she’s fulfilling her dream of teaching after all.

”I keep telling people to be grateful for what they have. You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. You might curse your life and what you have. I look at others in a worse condition, and I thank God for not taking away my legs or something like that,” Lata Devi shared.

Among the challenges she has to cope with daily is the stigma of having a disability. “People treat you differently. They just put you aside and judge you that you can’t do anything. People don’t want to employ us even as we have a right to employment. We may have the qualifications, but because we have a disability they won’t give us a chance.”

Apart from her strong system, Lata Devi explained that acceptance is a big part of helping her cope with her reality. “When I decided to come out from the dark hole I was in, my family supported me; they are my backbone. What I can’t change, I live with. Acquiring a disability was not something in my control so I cannot change it; I’ve learned to accept it and live with it.”
Her beautiful three-year-old daughter also became her biggest inspiration and inspired her to be strong and independent. “I don’t want her to see me as a weak mom, but as a strong woman fighting to be the best I can.”

After finishing UG, Lata Devi plans to pursue her career in social work even further. She wants those in the disability community to know that isolating themselves will not help. “Come out and interact. Do not shut yourself out from the world. We are not outcasts; we are people like everyone else. Be grateful, be kind to others, and show gratitude.”