Reading Assistance To Blind Lecturer

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 2

Reading Assistance To Blind Lecturer

Reading international law to a blind university lecturer has become an absorbing spare-time interest for Mrs Helen Reardon, who is now visiting Christchurch with her Lytteltonborn husband, Mr B. R. Reardon.

The lecturer, a young Pakistani, has inoperable cataracts and can see only shadows. He attained a masters degree in international law, and is teaching at a university in Karachi, where Mr and Mrs Reardon have been living for the last four years.

Mrs Reardon first heard of him through the American Women’s Club in Karachi, which raises funds for many charities. One of these is a nearby school for the blind, which he attended. “Another woman in the club asked for assistance in reading to him, because he had such facility for absorbing knowledge,” Mrs Reardon said yesterday.

International law is a subject in which Mrs Reardon is especially interested. Before her marriage she was a busy career woman; she met her husband while serving with the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and one of her posts in the foreign service was with the United Nations. “Some of the reading I’ve been doing includes United Nations law. It’s all very interesting, and if I’d done a college degree I think I think I would have pursued law. We’ve also been reading the thinkers—Aristotle, Plato —and I am enjoying it very much.” To supplement the reading she does Mrs Reardon is now making tape recordings in her spare time at home. When she returns to Karachi she hopes to persuade the club to provide the school for the blind with a large tape recorder and a supply of tapes. With this equipment she would record books, and build up a taped library for the school.

The American Women’s Club contributed to many charities a leprosarium, schools for the blind and deaf, orphanages and hospitals. They supplied gifts of food and equipment, and provided nursing scholarships for local Pakistani girls. Many Pakistani women’s social clubs also raised funds for charities. Mrs Reardon’s club take a special interest in the Holy Family Hospital, run by a Roman Catholic order of nuns, and the British equivalent helps the Seventh Day Adventist hospital. Bridge parties are a popular source of funds. “It sounds social, but the causes are good. One club built a whole new hospital wing from funds from bridge mornings,” she said. Since she has been in Karachi Mrs Reardon has met many educated Pakistani women, particularly in the fields of education and medicine. She thinks there are ’ more women of this calibre in Pakistan than America, and considers Western women may be lagging behind.

Mr Reardon, who is with the International Harvester Export Company, has been most impressed with the development of tourism in Pakistan. “The country now has five Inter-Continental hotels, and a very efficient internal and external air service. Although they don’t have anything like our beautiful scenery they are really making an effort to attract tourists and keep them happy,” he said. He considers that New Zea-

land could take a lead from their efforts, and the more aggressive selling of the Australians. “When I go to Hong Kong or Singapore, I don’t see signs saying ’Come to New Zea-

land.’ I see them for Australia. I suppose there must be some, but they must be few and far between.

“I would like to see more good hotels built at New Zealand’s resort spots. If the facilities were here the tourists would come, and stay longer,” he said.