NOVEMBER 2017

Learning and love through B.E.A.M.
BY LISA CIPRIANO
Gabrail Youhana came to the
U.S. in 2008 like many others
to escape the religious
persecution of Christians in his native
country Iraq. He had more than
the usual challenges of learning the
language and culture of his new
home. Youhana has the additional
struggle of being completely blind.
That might seem like an overwhelming
number of obstacles to
overcome, if it were not for a special
program offered by the Chaldean
Community Foundation. Thanks to
the B.E.A.M. project, Youhana found
learning and the love of his life.
B.E.A.M. stands for braille, ESL
(English as a second language), acculturation,
and mobility. They are four
very important focuses to help bring
blind and legally blind immigrants
and refugees out of the darkness of a
new, unfamiliar country into the light
of a more independent life.
It’s collaboration among the
Chaldean Community Foundation,
Bureau of Services for Blind Persons,
Macomb Literacy Partners and St.
Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church.
B.E.A.M. participants learn to
speak English, read through braille
and learn to be more independent
through classes once a week.
The project is part of the CCF’s
Breaking Barriers Program and exists
because of the hard work and dedication
of Susan Kattula, behavioral
health manager for the Chaldean
Community Foundation.
The project came to life in 2014
when Sue Kattula set out to help 16
blind refugees. “I went on home visits
and assessed the needs of every
single one of them. I found that they
all wanted the same things. They
needed to learn English. They needed
to learn Braille because many of
them lived in apartment complexes
and they got confused using the elevators.
They needed to be more
mobile and use a white cane so as not
to always need to rely on somebody
sighted to get around,” explained
Kattula.
Youhana had similar needs when
he enrolled in the program shortly
after arriving in the U.S. Aside from
not being able to see his new surroundings,
he couldn’t understand
anything that what was being said on
the TV news and radio. “After that, I
said to myself, that I have to learn it.
I have to learn everything,” said Youhana.
“I also can’t see the words and
the spelling of the words. So it makes
it even harder,” Youhana added.
Youhana went looking for a
school to accommodate his special
needs with no luck, until someone
told him about the B.E.A.M. project.
“So, I went there to learn the language,
the technology on the laptop
and iPhone apps that talk to me and
help me, the braille and the things
to help with mobility like the white
cane that I never knew about,” he
explained.
Recently, Kattula was able to secure
a $25,000 scholarship grant to
get the vital technology that comes
with iPhone and iPad into the hands
of 15 of her students. They benefit
enormously from the helpful applications
that are available to assist the
blind with everyday life things that
the sighted often take for granted.
“There are apps that can read money.
They can see if it’s a five-dollar bill or
a 20-dollar bill. There is even an app
that can tell them what color pants
they are wearing,” said Kattula.
Aside from the unique technology
services that the B.E.A.M. project
has developed, Kattula is able to
provide other services by creating
partnerships with other state and local
social service agencies such as the
Bureau of Services for Blind Persons
and Macomb Literacy Partners. “MLP
provides two tutors weekly for three
hours each to teach one-on-one English
as a second language course as
well as group courses,” said Kattula.
In fact, many of the lessons are
interdependent. “For instance, a student
must be able to learn English in
order to learn Braille,” Kattula explained.
Blind students also are not
able to take a written literacy test to
assess what levels they are at. “That’s
where we needed Macomb Literacy
Partners to come in and work with
the student’s and teach ESL in a different
way so that they could build
up their language skills and participate
in a publicly funded ESL program,”
Kattula concluded.
Volunteers, mostly from local
churches, are also essential to keep
the program running successfully.
“We have a few volunteers that come
in on a regular basis. They are assigned
certain students to work with;
they help them with interpretation.
They also help them navigate around
so that they will be safe in their environment.
Kattula prefers that volunteers
commit long-term in order to
develop a relationship with students
and keep up with each person’s goals.
The project even has a dedicated bus
driver to make sure that students,
who don’t have someone to transport
them, are safely transported to the
B.E.A.M. program’s Sterling Heights
location.
A total of 38 blind and legally
blind students have benefitted from
the B.E.A.M. program since its inception.
Thirteen of them are constant
students. “It all depends on
each student’s individual needs and
goals at the time. We have three
students who are working towards
achieving their American citizenship.
So, they are coming in to be tutored
for instance, on the civics portion
of the test,” Kattula explained.
“It changed everything,” said
Youhana.
The B.E.A.M. project quite literally
did change everything for Youhana.
It’s where he found his lifelong
soulmate in another one of the project’s
students by the name of Noora
who also came to the US from Iraq
for the same reasons as Youhana.
Noora and Gabrail Youhana in the BEAM class and on their wedding day.
The two participated in the program
at the same time and on the same
schedule. Noora would take a taxi
from Novi as Youhana was being
brought in from Shelby Township.
On most days, they would arrive early
and chat with one other to pass the
time. They developed and friendship
and a romance soon followed. Noora
became Mrs. Gabrail Youhana in
September of 2015. Their daughter,
Pearla was born on August of 2017.
“You don’t have to have sight to
love each other because the heart is
love,” concluded Youhana.
The Chaldean Community Foundations’
B.E.A.M. project /Breaking
Barriers program is seeking dedicated,
long term volunteers. If you or
someone you know is interested in
volunteering or donating, go online
to: http://www.chaldeanfoundation.
org/beam/ and click the ‘Help Us
Grow’ option.
Anyone who is interested in enrolling
in the program should call the Chaldean
Community Foundation’s Sterling
Heights location at: (586) 722-7253.
30 CHALDEAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2017