Being 100% visually impaired didn’t deter young Nympha Fernandes, as she proved to everyone around that nothing is impossible to achieve if you put your heart and mind to it. Sixteen-year-old Nympha scored 73.3% at the class 10 SSC exams recently. The years of hard work and continued dedication from the young Benaulim girl has been applauded by everyone across the state.
“I would have otherwise got 80%,” says Nympha, who said that the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic put things off gear.
“It was unexpected for the lockdown to happen. We also had a notion that exams would be cancelled or post-ponded. It was complete confusion for us,” she said.
Nympha stayed away from home from the age of 11, at the National Association for Blind (NAB) in Santa Cruz, in order to attend her schooling at Santa Cruz high school. The centre, which usually has around 24-28 students staying at their residential facility, caters to the needs of the blind.
Having a great passion for singing, Nympha also spends her time doing crafts and painting. Her visual impairment does not deter her to do things what any normal person can do.
“Society will accept us when we are free within our mind and we show that despite our disability we are able to move ahead and achieve things that any normal person can,” she says.
“If one does this, the world around will accept us, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Nympha was born pre-mature and was subsequently placed in an incubator for two and a half months. However, a medical lapse leads to her visual impairment.
Moving ahead, Nympha plans to pursue her dreams of becoming a historian. A particular chapter during her initial years of schooling drove her to explore her passion for history and culture.
“In class five, I read a chapter ‘Walls tell Stories’ which had stories about ancient history and forts. That sparked my interest in history. Since then I wanted to become a historian,” she says. She also has been actively connected with history professors from colleges across Goa who have promised their full support to help her.
Her proud mother, Josephine, said that she is grateful to everyone at the school and the association for all the support they have rendered over the years. “All this experience at the NAB has enabled my daughter to get the correct exposure and be independent,” she added.
Nympha appeared in an awareness video “Gift Your Eyes” last year as the main performer.
