Determined girl won’t be slowed down
Nine-year-old blind Syrian refugee gets opportunity at cross country meet
Nine-year-old Israa Darrouba is a little dynamo who isn’t going to let something like blindness slow her down.
The Grade 4 student at Highland
Heights Public School competed at the Kawartha Pine Ridge Elementary Athletic Association North cross country running meet at Nicholls Oval on Wednesday.
She ran with adult guide Ryan Stabler after practising for weeks with fellows students at her school.
“I was so excited to run with everybody,” said Darrouba, who was born blind due to a genetic disorder. She and her family came to Canada from Syria two years ago.
Her sight is limited to seeing lights and shadows but it seldom holds her back says her teacher and coach Heather Snowball.
“Israa is a very determined girl,” Snowball said. “She loves to be at school and loves to take on as many challenges and opportunities as possible. A big goal for Israa is just to prove she can do anything. She is often successful.”
Snowball said classmates were more than happy to guide her in practice.
“We’re never going to stop Israa from doing what she loves. A lot of students are willing to run with her in practice,” Snowball said.
Her older sister Aya has the same condition and ran last year with Stabler.
“I was thinking it would be a good challenge,” Israa said. “I liked doing it. It was my goal from last year to do cross country this year. I wanted to do something new.”
She said her favourite part was running down hills and she found Stabler helpful.
“He was nice and he helped me so much,” she said. “He told me what was in front of me and told me to go left or go right or go straight.”
Snowball said Darrouba put in the same work as the rest of her team to prepare.
“She’s been training at our practices and on her own time with her education assistant Sue Calderwood. They’ve been doing laps around the yard at recess time and at our practices. She’s been very dedicated and going above and beyond to make sure she was ready.”
She was one of 600 runners from 25 schools between Grades 4 to 8 participating in the annual meet. The top eight boys and girls in each grade advance to the KPREAA board-wide meet in Brighton on Oct. 11.
Ed Holton, who took over as KPREAA president from Bernd Kelly, who served in the role for eight years, said KPREAA strives to be inclusive.
“We stress inclusiveness in the classroom and we, through the KPREAA executive, try to make it come true for sports, too,” Holton said.
“We all know how important sports are to students’ success and relates academically. Those students with any kind of disability should be out there, too. We’re proud of them.”