Profile: Fahreen Mapara, Courage to Come Back Award winner
Posted May 3, 2010 7:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Inspiring, generous, and enthusiastic… We conclude this series of “Courage to Come Back” profiles, with a look at the winner in the youth category.
Ten-year-old Fahreen Mapara is a lot like any girl her age…”We have gym today, I played hockey…”
But when she was a baby, she had to have a special operation to separate her windpipe from her gullet and a tracheostomy so she could breathe through her throat. She also requires a feeding tube leading directly to her stomach.
Her mother Saira says those challenges give her a unique capacity to help and relate to other children with special needs. “There was a kid in her class that nobody understood what that kid really wanted, but she did. People like us would not understand but she understood that child right away.”
Fahreen doesn’t let any of her obstacles hold her back. The 10-year-old is a leader in her classroom, from helping other special needs children to taking part in a diversity workshop. Her mom says she’s an equipment monitor at school and has even taken up a new activity.
“I put in her martial arts only for a month thinking that okay you know maybe after a month she’ll tell me ‘no, I quit’ but no, she said ‘no, I’m going to continue.”
Her mom says none of this would have been possible without the help of doctors, nurses, speech therapists, and teachers. “The way I feel, she has done really well for herself and thanks to everybody that’s been in her care.”
News1130 is a proud sponsor of the “Courage to Come Back” awards, which are being handed out on Thursday.
