From Globetrotter's "second" mum. I wanted to share with all of you.

[carmenm]

I have known Globetrotter since she was little. She had many problems as a little girl. I raised her for the most part because her family is s**t. She was a rubella baby, is blind, has speech difficulties and has some slight physical problems as well. She was in OT, PT, you name it. No one EVER thought she would be able to live on her own, never mind start a business in Vietnam. I for one, was terrified. I had no idea she was capable of such a thing (getting teary eyed thinking about it). It has been very hard for her. She has done terrifically well though.... I couldn't have done that much at 24!

Maybe I should explain a bit about her project.
She started an NGO (on her own when she was 22!) called Eye Will.
She went to Vietnam, learned to speak the language, found a business partner, wrote all of the documents and set up a partnership with the blind association. There are over 100 blind children in Hue, the city where she is based. She is training the teachers, as well as finding others to train them, supplying equipment to the children, creating braille materials in English, etc. She also walks to the other associtations and orphanages to assist with the other sn children. One of her main goals is to alert the public about disabilities. She had a hard time convincing us that she could live independently, now she is determined to do so. This is all being done by a kid who took 2 weeks to learn how to light a lighter. I have an nt child, but Globe is very special to me. I am German btw, and usually I don't say things like this. But she is an amazing girl.

what a lovely post(not what she has been through but the love you have for her)

she taught me the meaning of unconditional love........and patience.

She has to face some very difficult challenges. Even though she's 24, she's still very naive, iykwim, so sometimes she has a hard time coping with new situations or finding solutions to problems. Its tough for me not to just jump in and help, I want to so badly sometimes. I know she wants to show me how independent she is though. I know she still has trouble with a few things (cutting meat, washing clothes by hand, etc), but she tries so hard to do them. Bless her, she had to go to hospital last week and apparently the doctor laughed at her for having a dirty bra. I wish he hadn't of done that, she had to learn to clean things by hand on her own. She makes such an effort, she doesn't deserve to be laughed at.