Citizen, with the help of a friend

LITTLE ROCK — Things were running smoothly during the naturalization ceremony at the Federal Courthouse on Friday, where Nimer Jaber, 21, was one of 52 new U.S. citizens awaiting certificates, until suddenly the room went dark.

Courthouse off icialslooked for the light switch. Jaber, who has been blind since birth, was unfazed sitting in the dark.

He sat quietly in the first row with his guide dog, Abbie, at his feet, unaware that he would be the first name called.

“I just sat where they told me to,” Jaber said. Jaber wasn’t nervous, just happy that thiswas over with, he said.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do after today,” he said. “Right now I’m going to thank the people who helped me.”

Among Jaber’s supporters, all from the Lions World Services for the Blind in Little Rock, was Wanda Emde, 70, a classmate and widow who helped finance Jaber’scitizenship.

“He’s had so many hardships in his little life,” Emde said. “I thought he needed a break.”

Emde, who lives in Bald Knob, suffers from a degenerative eye disease called retinal pigment epithelial dystrophy. She went to Lions World Services for an independent-living course, she said. The nonprofit group provides vocational, counseling and education to blind or visually impaired people, according to its website.

Emde and Jaber met while taking classes at Lions World Services for the Blind in January.

“He showed me how to get to the cafeteria and how to get to my classes,” Emde said. The two became fast friends. Emde was impressed with Jaber from the moment they met, she said.

“He just opens his mouth and smart just rolled out,” she said.

Emde was equally impressed by Jaber’s life story and how he came to America.

Jaber was born April 17, 1990, in a small village called Nahariya in north Israel. Born with glaucoma, he was sent to Russia in 1991 for treatment.

“I had some of my vision back,” Jaber said. “I had light perception, but that went away within a year.”

During that time, Jaber’s father disappeared.

“No one knew where he went,” Jaber said. “He was supposed to be going on a business trip, but never came back.”

Jaber’s family continued to look for cures. He would always lose his sight again.

“I don’t think my family ever gave up on giving mesight,” Jaber said.

In 1998, his mother left. Jaber and his brother stayed with relatives until word arrived from his father in Colorado. The boys went there to live with him. Jaber went to a school for the blind but transferred to a public school.

“The blind school wasn’t very academic, and they were too restrictive,” Jaber said.

Jaber said he enjoyed public school and didn’t worry about the adversity he sometimes faced.

“I did what I had to do to get out of there,” he said. Jaber graduated from high school in 2009 and attended the University of ColoradoSprings studying criminal justice.

He left after the first semester. He worked three jobs to pay for school and the pressures became too much for him, he said.

Along with Abbie, whom he got in New Jersey the summer before college, Jaber decided to find a new place to start over, he said.

“I pointed to a map and it landed on Austin, Texas,” he said. Jaber bought a plane ticket, found a roommate on Craigslist and found a job with the Travis Association for the Blind. The organization known as the Austin Lighthouse is a nonprofit that assists the blind and visionimpaired in developing skills needed to find jobs, according to its website.

In 2010, Jaber was laid off from his job and decided to move to Arkansas and attend Lions World Services because of its vocational training in computer technology, he said. Jaber said he enjoys working with computers, but his lack of citizenship held him back.

“I was getting interviews with companies that wanted to hire me, but when the question of citizenship cameup, I had to say I wasn’t a citizen,” Jaber said. “Then I couldn’t get the job.”

His citizenship status came up during a conversation with Emde. Jaber said he wanted to be a citizen but couldn’t afford it.

Emde said, “I told him he needed to become a citizen so he could pay taxes and I could keep getting my Social Security checks.”

Jaber responded, “If you want to write a check for $700 then I will.” Jaber said that statement was meant to be a joke, but Emde agreed.

Emde’s daughters weren’t surprised by their mother’s willingness to help this relative stranger.

“My parents are knownaround town for their generosity,” said Kathy Lawson, Emde’s daughter. “I’m so proud of her.”

Emde said God brought her and Jaber together. Emde decided to go to Lions World Services for the Blind after her husband, Bill, died in April 2010.

“He would have loved Nimer’s straightforwardness,” Emde said of her husband. “I’m doing this for him.”

Jaber said he is grateful for Emde’s help. But he’s determined to pay her back when he finds a job. Jaber said he realizes his life could have been easier if he could see.

“But everything I know I [learned] not being able to see,” he said.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/14/2011

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