Sara Gadalla
Sara Gadallah Gubara al-Faki Ibrahim (born 23 April 1956) is a Sudanese swimmer and filmmaker, who was known for being the first Sudanese woman to participate in international swimming competitions, namely the Italian Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli long-distance swimming race in 1974. She was also known for being the first Sudanese woman to swim across the English Channel into France, despite having contracted polio as a child; and also as a pioneering filmmaker in her country; first assisting her father, and later directing her own films.
Quotes
[edit]- I hope the campaign will reach every child in my country, so that everybody grows up healthy.
- One of the most difficult things for a child, is to be among other children, but feel different, in a country where disability is a stigma.
- I suffered a lot from the negative way people in my community looked at me when I was a little girl and as a teenager, and certainly I felt very sad and in all the stages of my life as I tried to overcome the feeling that I was less than the other girls. But, thank God and thanks to my family, I could overcome that.
- Let your children get the vaccination against polio. A small dose will prevent a big disaster.
- The difficulties and stigma I faced due to polio challenged me and turned me into the Sara Gadalla that I am.
- If I could change anything, then it would be the way society looks at people with different disabilities.
- taken from an interview with UNICEF, 21 December 2020
