Aynur Algül is a remarkable woman; she has two charming children, is a councilor for Bağcılar, and works as a psychologist. She has devoted her life to working with disabled individuals, particularly people with visual impairments. Algül has worked in Kirghizstan and Kosovo.She has spent extended periods of time in both countries; while her husband was setting up call centers for visually challenged people to learn a career, she took on the task of providing psychological support for the students. She has now been offered a six-month project in Senegal; instead of wondering what is Senegal like, whether it is a good place to bring up her children, etc., she is preparing to go and help the people there.There are a lot of people who do similar things. So why do I say Algül is remarkable? Algül is blind, suffering from 95% visual loss. When she was in primary school she became ill, and this illness affected her vision. She slowly lost the ability to see, but did not tell anyone. Algül did not want her parents or her teachers to know, fearing that they would take her from school and then she would not be able to continue her education. So for two years her classmate read the homework to her. Algül memorized the texts and when the teacher asked her a question she would hold the book in front of her and pretend that she was reading. After two years her family realized that she was having trouble seeing and took her from school; at that time there was no special education or braille books, or any means for her to continue learning at a normal school.But young Algül wanted to continue; so she continued her education from what is called "Open High School", a kind of distance-learning program. She graduated and did well enough on the exams to be accepted at university; but when it came time to enroll she hit another wall. Her handicap this time was not a physical handicap, but rather the fact that she wore a headscarf. Her entry to university coincided with the years in which girls were forbidden from entering the university with headscarves.But Aysun once again wanted to continue. She found an American university that offered distance learning and completed a degree in psychology. After she graduated she got married to a man whom she jokingly refers to as "professionally blind" (she claims she is a "imitation blind", coming to this state at a later stage in her life, whereas her husband was born blind). They have two children. When the first child was born, Algül and her husband were worried how they would help their children with their homework. But their worries were unfounded, their strength and determination to do the best for the family has led to their daughter being self-reliant and incredibly successful.Algül has recently been elected as a city councilor for Bağcılar; one of four women. She speaks up for both women's issues and the concerns of disabled people. I wanted to meet her to discuss a project and she invited me to the council building. When I first saw Algül I did not realize she was blind. She looked me in the face and welcomed me. It was only as we started to walk that I noticed she was moving forward with more care than a seeing person would. After we had spent some time in the council building, Algül suggested going to another venue. She directed the driver as we went, saying turn left here, right here; even though she could not see the road, she knew where to go. Jokingly she says her uncle has offered to buy her a car, saying she knows her way around the region so well there is no reason she cannot drive… While in Kirgizstan and Kosovo Algül un helped others to come to terms with their disabilities. She told me how she was very angry as a teenager; she raged against her blindness. But then she decided that as the blindness was not about to go away, she had to learn to live with it. Her incredibly positive attitude is inspiring. She says that she now realizes that her blindness is a gift from Allah; if she had not gone blind she would probably have lived a standard normal life. However, her blindness has made her strive to be more successful, to do more. It has been the spur that has driven her to succeed.When talking, my friend commented on smart Algül's outfit of a navy coat with pink trim was, and how it went so well with her scarf. Algül grinned and said "I love clothes and I love looking good. I dress for myself; it is a reflection of the value I give to myself. If I die my hair people ask me why did you do that? You can't see your hair! But I can, and I feel the difference. This is what makes me happy. How I look is important as it reflects how I feel about me."Today Algül knows that children with visual impairment or other disabilities in Turkey can go to school to continue their education. When Algül was younger there was very limited care for disabled children, especially in more remote areas. But today the situation is different She is confident that they will not have to jump through the hurdles she did as a young girl. These children can attend normal schools, or if their disability prevents this, there are a number of special schools and courses designed for them. The Bağcılar Council has arranged a number of special classes for disabled individuals, from training for employment in call centers, hairdressers, or kitchens, to typing for the visually impaired, and even art classes (I saw a painting drawn by a person with severe visual disability there two years ago. I found it had to conceive how they had executed it, but I was assured this was not half as unusual as I thought) It is for this reason that Algül has turned her attention to other countries, to Kirghizstan or Senegal. She has dedicated her life to making sure that other children do not have to struggle as she did.There is a message for everyone here. No matter what difficulties we face, we should do our best to overcome them. But this is not enough. If we are able to overcome certain hurdles, what could be more rewarding than teaching others to do the same? And what a great pleasure it is to live in a country that enables us to do this, to stretch out our hands to help not only those within the national borders, but those who live beyond them. It is efforts like this that makes the global village a more pleasant and humane place to live.