A blind 35-year-old woman doing voluntary work in Nadi has a dream of one day becoming a famous singer and musician.

Jyothi Naidu of Nadi who believes people living with disabilities have an ability to do the impossible has been working hard towards that dream.

She is into her eleventh month learning how to play the harmonium at the Girmit Centre in Lautoka.

“I am very glad that I am able to cope very fast,” she said.

“We, the people living with disability should have the courage to say ‘yes we can do it’.”

Ms Naidu who is a volunteer for the Fiji Disabled People’s Federation in Nadi began losing her vision as a baby.

“I was born premature and because I stayed in the incubator for more than six weeks, I lost my vision,” she said.

“I am thankful to my mum for letting me mix around with the able children and because of that I didn’t feel neglected.”

Ms Naidu started attending classes when she was five years old.

“Because of my vision, children did colouring and reading while I was in my corner playing with toys and blocks,” she said.

After three years, she then moved up to primary level and attended Marcellin Primary School from Year 2-8, however, she faced some difficulties in between.

“I use to ask children to help me with reading from the board. Some teachers were good but not all,” she said.

“Sometimes I had to crave for notes.”

As time went on her vision grew worse and things were becoming difficult for her to cope with, nevertheless that did not deter her from participating in the classroom.

“I went to Ahmadiyya Muslim College where I had to record my notes, some teachers were so nice that they would take my tape recorder and record my notes and sometimes children would read to me,” she said.

She advises people who are living with disabilities to continue setting and achieving their goals no matter the circumstance they were in.