DO YOU KNOW THE HEROES AMONG US?
Ema Ananievska is a 24-year-old girl, a graduate pianist at the Faculty of Music in Skopje. She believes that every step is a victory and requires great motivation on the road to success. Physical barriers are the biggest problem she faces today, but with the big support from parents she works what she deeply believes in. The next step towards pursuing a master’s degree in music is postgraduate study.
1. What is it that you, personally, and your family had to give up to be as successful as you are?
I think every person makes a sacrifice so that they can achieve their goals. In my case it may have required more sacrifice, but when they show you the options and the right path from small feet, it is not a sacrifice but a personal motive.
2. How much energy and sacrifice does it take to be part of the winning team?
Of course, I put a lot of effort into achieving my desired goal as a professional pianist, and that is to be better in what I do every day. For me, every step forward is a victory.
3. Have you ever had to face some moral or physical barrier on the way to your integration and socialization?
Sure, there were people who disagreed with my integration, but I think every person has people around him who support him and people who don’t, regardless of whether he has a disability. As for physical barriers, they are my biggest problem today. Anywhere I want to go I need escorts. We do not have adequate tactile paths, sound traffic lights, bus signaling, until we almost did not know what personal and educational assistants are, in other words we have no basic conditions for a normal independent life. For my socialization we have endured many difficult times and that is why I have become a stronger person.
4. Has the educational system managed to respond to your needs, starting from the earliest age, and now, as a young person, in terms of ensuring environment which fosters equal development of all, irrespective of their disabilities?
Requirement in education, while I was studying, were inadequate for my condition. I didn’t have any braille literature or audio books. My family had to pay extra hours because they didn’t have special educators, I had to learn the lessons with the help of my parents – so they read to me on a tape recorder, and then I studied, without any support from the state institutions. Despite all the difficulties mentioned, I was able to master the teaching content equally with my peers.
5. Are there enough seminars, trainings, courses and workshops which have helped you attain your goals?
I have attended many seminars, courses and workshops, but so far, I have been able to achieve exclusively with the enormous support of my family and no one else.
6. Are there conditions and career areas allowing you to completely realize your intellectual capacities?
I am at the age of exploring career terms.
7. Can you share a moment you are especially proud of?
I am especially proud of my graduation. Wondering why? So, despite not having the proper conditions for studying, I was able to finish college with my peers.
8. What motivated you to persist and succeed?
The desire to prove to myself that lack of vision cannot hinder me from achieving my goals.
9. What are your future objectives and plans?
The next step that is of great importance to me is postgraduate study.
10. Can we expect any important achievement of yours that we can all feel proud of as citizens of our country and which will serve as an inspiration for generations of young people to come?
Thank you for your kind words. As before, I will continue to work only on what I deeply believe. That is, we all have the same rights, we must have equal opportunities, have appropriate adapted conditions, accessibility, the right to choose and education. And what an inspiration I have for future generations to let time show.
Finally, I would like to add that people with a disability do not exist only on December 3rd. Here are around you and the other 364 days a year.
