Khara Per­sad

"I want­ed my in­de­pen­dence, I don't want to de­pend on any­one to make break­fast for me."

Vishad Paryag, 18, was beam­ing with pride when he grad­u­at­ed from a 12-week-long cook­ing class de­signed for the blind and vi­su­al­ly im­paired. Paryag lost his vi­sion when he was eight, and has since fought to be self-suf­fi­cient.

"In­de­pen­dence and self-es­teem go to­geth­er, be­cause with my in­de­pen­dence I know I can achieve a lot of things. That's what this class re­al­ly taught me."

The south branch of the T&T Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion held a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the Young Women's Chris­t­ian As­so­ci­a­tion (YW­CA) in St Au­gus­tine for sev­en blind stu­dents, who learned to cook nu­tri­tious meals.

De­onar­ine Ra­goo, man­ag­er of the as­so­ci­a­tion's south branch, said many blind peo­ple across the coun­try lived alone, and there­fore need­ed to learn how to pre­pare meals for them­selves.

"The ben­e­fit of the pro­gramme is to give blind peo­ple a sense of pow­er and in­de­pen­dence."

He asked grad­u­ates to recog­nise the philoso­phies be­ing taught be­yond the cook­ing class.

"This pro­gramme was strate­gi­cal­ly cal­cu­lat­ed to em­pow­er and pro­mote self-re­liance, in­de­pen­dence, dig­ni­ty and self-es­teem."

Ra­goo said there was a thrust to move away from the stig­ma of de­pen­den­cy and de­vel­op a so­ci­ety that was more in­te­grat­ed. "Blind and vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­sons can per­form."

Pad­mi­ni Seecha­ran, wel­fare of­fi­cer at the as­so­ci­a­tion, added that the "new chefs" would now be able to save some mon­ey, and not have to buy food every day.

"We hope that by the end of the year, your bank books will be look­ing good with the sav­ings."

In con­junc­tion with the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Home Econ­o­mists, and a free teach­ing space of­fered by the YW­CA, tu­tor chef Mau­reen Tay­lor-Ryan taught the first, all-male class to make pelau, piz­za, stewed chick­en, fresh sal­ad, sand­wich­es and desserts. She was very proud of her grad­u­at­ing class, say­ing they were im­pres­sive in the kitchen.

"It's a mar­vel how they can use their hands to learn the equip­ment."

This was the as­so­ci­a­tion's sixth grad­u­at­ing class, and so far 26 stu­dents have passed through the course.

Five stu­dents were present for their grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny and re­ceived cer­tifi­cates of achieve­ment: Mosi An­drews, An­dre Nicholas, Bob­by See­baran, David La Caille and Paryag. Each got a chance to speak at the cer­e­mo­ny, and they all ex­pressed their grat­i­tude for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to be­come more in­de­pen­dent. Paryag joked that he was now prop­er­ly pre­pared to get mar­ried, should he meet the right girl.

La Caille, 53, said the feel­ing of not need­ing any­one was in­de­scrib­able.

"Now I'm able to do things on my own, I don't have to de­pend on some­one to get some­thing to eat. I'm sure I'm not go­ing to starve any­more."

La Caille, who said his favourite dish was shep­herd's pie, joked that the hard­est part about cook­ing was bak­ing, as he usu­al­ly burned his hand. "I still love cook­ing."

Tay­lor-Ryan said bak­ing was the hard­est as­pect of cook­ing to teach and for the stu­dents to learn, as peo­ple who are blind will have to ad­just to their stoves, and learn the bak­ing knobs that con­trol tem­per­a­ture. When asked how they iden­ti­fied spices in the kitchen, she said that's where their oth­er sens­es kicked in.

"They smell and feel the in­gre­di­ents. They can iden­ti­fy the shapes and smells and even tastes."

A potluck-style lunch fol­lowed the cer­e­mo­ny, as each stu­dent had cooked a dish and brought it to share with every­one.