Shahd Alhamdan When optimism becomes the spark of a person's dreams anything turns out to be possible. Ayman Farghaly has succeeded in grabbing the media's attention in the last few years especially after winning several awards including the Award for the Special Jury for Sculpture. Farghaly, in his third decade as sculptor, faced a major crossroad in his life at the age of 19 after having an accident in a park and became Tetraplegic. He had several surgeries and became seated and his hands were not functioning like before. Yet, his disability did not prevent him from achieving his dream of becoming one of the popular sculptors in Egypt. “As a result of the accident, God honored me by giving me the opportunity to sit on a wheelchair since it was a turning point for me. After more than two years after the accident I went back to the craft of sculpting. I also developed my skills to be a unique stone sculptor and became an artist.” “From this point I started to participate in several competitions such as, the Youth Art Palace, The Special Art , Ramadan Actualities with the Ministry of Culture and other events. I represented the special needs' groups in many events, including the conference of Public Authority for challenging the Disability under the auspices of the Cultural Palaces. I also participated in the Arab Summit conference for challenging the Disability. I had participated in several conferences and events since I am stones' sculpture,” Ayman added. What makes Farghaly, who participated in several sit ins supporting the Palestinian cause, distinctive is his refusal of the perception towards disabled groups. He said: “Society is still not aware of the realm of the disabled group and they don't believe that a handicapped person could produce rather than consume. I always say that disability lies in the way of thinking and not in the shape of the body. If the political system is not capable of developing its society this is the disability. When disabled groups wait for the five percents this is disability. Why don't you move and work? “Perceiving handicapped people in a different way is not under their control since the idea that the regime had imposed didn't give the society a chance to interact with this group positively.” Mustafa Ahmed an Egyptian friend of Ayman calls the latter an inspiration. “When he is working he is completely different, something that you can't imagine. You don't know how he sits on the stone or how he works. He is an artist”. “I was amazed by his work. He draws beautiful sketches, ” said another friend Omar Ali. As Dr. Veena Kumari said: “Enable the Disabled; Translate Disability into Ability; Capability, a winning opportunity and indeed a Reality.” And that's what exactly Ayman is doing when he transferred his only dream into actuality.
