Farewell speech for the 2008 training in Malaysia by Mr. Leki Chedup, Bhutan

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Good evening to you all.

It is indeed a great honour and privilege for a humble person like me to have such a wonderful opportunity to speak on behalf of all my trainee mates and my own behalf. First of all, we are deeply honoured and touched by this special occasion that you have arranged particularly for the eight of us. Thank you to one and all for organizing this and coming here to bid farewell to us despite of your busy schedule elsewhere. Each and every one of your presence brings so much pleasure to us.

Now, let me briefly share with you all, the true feelings and experiences we have had during our short stay of 25 days, here at St. Nicholas Home. First and foremost, we would like to say that we really felt ourselves highly blessed and fortunate to have been selected as the ICT trainees for the fifth WBUAP Teruko Ikeda Scholarship Programme this year. Given the circumstances we were facing and situations we were going through, this kind of programme means a lot to us. It was a “dream come true” for all of us, it opened a new door to our lives and it brought us a light in the darkness. We hope this programme will also benefit many other visually impaired people in the coming years.

Generally speaking, this was the first time for most of us to travel outside our countries and we were at first mixed with the feelings of excitement and anxieties. Nevertheless, after reaching here, we began to feel at home due to the kindness of staff and conducive environment over here. We found every activity so useful, enjoyable and well organized. We had the opportunities to visit many new places and experience a lot of new things. Besides, it was also very interesting, informative and entertaining to share our views among friends and with the staff members, so much so that we did not realize how our days passed. We come from different countries, have different culture and belong to different societies. Yet, we share a common problem and common desire in our lives. This is what brought us together and this is what will keep us together in the times to come.

From the heart of our hearts, we would like to acknowledge that the computer lessons were very important and relevant to our careers and livelihood. We came here as larvae and now going back as butterflies. It is a fact that if Information, Communication and Technology are important for the sighted people, it is more so for visually impaired people. It helps us communicate with the world and obtain any information as we like. Therefore, on this fine occasion, we would like to wholeheartedly pledge that none of us will let the precious ICT knowledge and skills we gained in this training go in vain. In fact, we have the desire to upgrade and enhance our knowledge and skills in every possible way. Our quest for ICT knowledge will not at all end here. Further, we also would like to promise to impart our knowledge and skills as best as we can to our visually impaired friends after returning to our countries. Although this is a big responsibility and a difficult task, we will do whatever we can. It is our dream to help all our visually impaired friends overcome all their problems through ICT knowledge and skills. This training has given us new confidence and belief in ourselves that we can do many new things in more efficient ways that before.

Having said so, every successful programme is the result of a collective effort and we would like to express our heartiest gratitude to each and every person involved in making all this possible for us. Obviously, we are first and foremost deeply indebted to Ms. Teruko Ikeda for her generosity in sponsoring this programme. We are heartily thankful to be provided with a notebook computer each with JAWS software as we would never have got one by ourselves. She is also kindly bearing all our travelling costs and funding a month of training course for us besides other expenses. We will never forget her noble and selfless deeds bestowed upon us. Then, we would like to thank Mr. Tetsuji Tanaka, the chairman of Japan Braille Library for smoothly initiating and coordinating this whole programme. Similarly, we would like to attribute the success of this programme to Mr. Wong Yoon Loong, the programme manager, for his strong and efficient management. Our heartfelt gratitude must also be extended to Ms. Christina, the local coordinator on behalf of Japan Braille Library for arranging food, lodging and other necessary requirements in the best possible way. We are of course heartily grateful to Mr. David Hathway, the chief ICT instructor and Nr. Amir Teh, the assistant instructor for very actively, eloquently and professionally conducting the computer lessons day after day. Definitely, we acquired a lot of ICT knowledge and skills from them and we shall now utilize and implement them to the fullest. We will always follow their footsteps and remember their good advices. They have shown us the path and taught us how and where to go and it is now our duty to go as far as we can. For that matter, we would like to also thank Ms. Rebecca Marc for lending her helping hand whenever required. Then, we would like to thank Mr. Ooi, Cheekhoon the executive director of St. Nicholas Home, for generously availing the his center for our training with all necessary resources and facilities. We would like to equally thank Mr. Sati Rao, Mr. Ramesh Rao, Mr. Wan, etc. for guiding us and helping us with our meals day and night without any reluctance. They were always there to keep us safe and secured.

So, to be precise, we would like to thank all the staff of JBL and St. Nicholas Home more than our words can express. We believe that your dedication and commitment to serve the needs of people with disabilities will always remain same. We hope you enjoyed our company as much as we did. Please, kindly forgive us if anyone of us somehow failed to live up to your expectations as most of us are still in the learning stage.

Well, it is indeed very sad that the time has come for us to depart and say goodbye. But, it is a universal fact that anything that begins has to end and that is the most painful part of our lives. We will surely miss each one of you and the kindness you have shown to us so much and we will always keep them in our memories. Though we go far from each other, we can always remain connected through internet in this modern age of technology. Further, we, all the 2008 Teruko Ikeda ICT trainees would like to welcome all of you with our open hearts if you like to visit our countries. Finally, let me end here by thanking you all once again and we wish you all the best of luck and brighter future ahead. Let’s all pray and hope to meet again somewhere, somehow, some day.

Thank you.