HELEN KELLER
the story of Helen Keller is a moving and inspiring one Helen was born in a town in Alabama in America in 1880 she was healthy when she was born but at the age of just 19 months she lost her sight and hearing because of a high fever despite all this Helen grew up to be an inspiration to many people the first seven years of Helen's life were very difficult
she could not play like an ordinary child because she could not see or hear Helen was therefore unable to learn how to speak and was uncontrollable as a child she often became angry but invented many different signs of her own so that she could make herself understood Helen's mother and father loved her dearly they hoped that one day they could find a way to help their daughter little Helen's life would take a dramatic turn just before her seventh birthday a woman called Anne Mansfield Sullivan came to live with the Keller family
she would become Helen's teacher miss Sullivan was 20 years old she had graduated from the Perkins School for the blind she had lost much of her own sight but was able to see again after she had had some operations miss Sullivan was Helen's teacher for many years Helen was a difficult student at first but miss Sullivan taught her many wonderful things Helen would always remember the day her teacher came to live with her she considered it to be the most important day in her life miss Sullivan
started her first lesson with Helen by giving her a doll and spelling with her fingers the letters do-l-l in Helen's hand miss Sullivan aimed to teach Helen to connect objects with words by doing this at first Helen did not understand that miss Sullivan was spelling a word in Helen's world there were no words because she could not hear one day
miss Sullivan took Helen outside into the garden the teacher held Helen's hand under a water pump as cold water poured onto Helen's hand miss Sullivan spelt with her fingers the letters w-a-t-e in Helen's other hand
all of a sudden Helen understood she realized that what was being done in her palm meant the cool liquid she could feel with her other hand it was like a miracle the word water was one of the few words Helen had learned when she was a baby Helen still had a vague memory of the sound of the word water Helen was overjoyed to have made the connection between the word and the object this gave Helen great hope for the future
at last there was not only a way for people to communicate with her but Helen would now be able to learn how to express her own thoughts and feelings Helen learned many new words that day including the words mother father sister and teacher from then on Helen's education quickly progressed she learned the alphabet and also how to read braille which is a system of printing used by blind people
miss Sullivan was a very devoted teacher then when Helen was 10 years old she told miss Sullivan that she also wanted to learn how to speak Helen had learned of a deaf and blind girl in Norway who had learned how to talk to a lady called miss Sarah fuller taught Helen how to speak Helen would gently feel the movement of miss fuller's tongue and lips and then copy them
however, Helen had learned only the basic way to speak from miss fuller so it took a lot of practice and for a long time people could not understand what Helen was trying to say after much practice Helen was able to make herself understood miss Sullivan also corrected Helen when she made a mistake Helen was able to read braille and now she also knew how to speak Helen now dreamed of going to college her dream came true when she went to study for a ba degree at Radcliffe college ms Sullivan
sat by Helen all through her classes and homework spelling the words from books into Helen's hand Helen also enjoyed writing she wrote many articles for newspapers and magazines Helen often wrote about blindness deafness women's rights and other social issues she had many works published her first book the story of my life was published in 1903
it is now available in more than 50 languages Helen tried to improve the lives of other people who were blind or who like herself were both deaf and blind she helped many people around the world by raising money so that deaf and blind people could be educated too Helen was always eager to show what disabled people could achieve in life she was able to communicate with people by gently touching their faces and feeling the movement of their lips everyone was impressed by her courage in 1924 Helen started a fund
which was named after her to raise money for the blind the money was used to provide more schools for the blind as well as books in braille after world war ii ended in 1945 Helen met with many war veterans in the united states many of the men had lost their sight or hearing or they suffered from other disabilities because Helen was also disabled she could understand their feelings Helen's visits gave soldiers great courage and hope she called this period the crowning experience of my life Helen started travelling all over the world during the 11 years between 1946 and 1957 she visited 35 countries one of her longest trips was taken when she was 75 years old
she spent five months visiting various countries in Asia wherever she went Helen gave and received great warmth Helen met many world leaders including us president j.f Kennedy and India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru through these visits Helen kept appealing for the need of relief for the disabled she also wanted people to understand that the disabled were not special but like everybody else in 1964 president Lyndon johnson presented her with the presidential medal of freedom the highest award a civilian can receive in the u.s after receiving the prestigious award Helen said when one door of happiness closes another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been open for us a year after being presented with a medal
Helen was elected to the women's hall of fame at the new york world's fair Helen passed away just before her 88th birthday senator lister hill of Alabama summed up what people felt about Helen she will live on one of the few immortal names not born to die her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith you
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