PETALING JAYA, Dec 19 (Sin Chew Daily) — To 12-year-old Sri Kuala Lumpur student Yap Eng Tong, no one should give up hope easily despite difficulty in life or failure. Instead, we must train ourselves to be strong so that no one can stop us from doing things we want.

Yap was diagnosed with bilateral microcornea with coloboma at birth, causing her to be unable to see things around her clearly.

Nevertheless, this congenital disorder has not thwarted her passion for drawing and her ambition to become a painter with her own gallery one day.

She told
Sin Chew Daily despite physical disabilities or defects, we must strive to make our lives meaningful and pursue our dreams and goals boldly.

She said although she might not outdo other people in many things, she must have sufficient confidence in herself and not to give up easily.

Yap, who has just won the grand prize at the school’s drawing contest, said drawing was her strength and her classmates would approach her for help whenever they had any question in drawing, and she would do her utmost to help.

She said during the class she would use a tablet to take a picture of the points written down by the teacher on the white board or projected onto the screen so that she could enlarge the pictures to read clearly.

Due to her vision defect, her examination paper is different from that of her classmates, with enlarged text on larger sheets of paper so that she can read clearly.

“At school, my classmates and I have been getting along very well and I almost forget that I have eyesight problem.

“They also help me a lot to overcome my difficulties.”