A young blind woman from Arad who discovered climbing nine years ago, when she was 11, feels truly free only when she climbs walls, and her plan is to set up a recreational activity room where any children can get a chance to do sports.
Ariana Pero is 20 years old and has been blind since birth, a disability that did not prevent her from wanting to do a less popular sport in Romania. In fact, he discovered climbing in France, where she attended her first years of school, and at the age of 12 she returned to the country and joined a sports club in Arad.
"At first I was afraid, I was scared of what could happen, of the possibility of an accident, but I came to love this sport and I wanted to do more. With climbing, I discovered the feeling of freedom, of doing certain things on my own, even if I receive instructions from the instructor, it is something I can do just like other people. Somehow, it puts me on an equal footing and boosts my self-confidence. Blind people are generally marginalised when it comes to sports. In Romania it is difficult to do climbing because there are few instructors willing to work with us. That's why I was happy when I managed to find a coach in Arad, a family acquaintance who agreed to work together," Ariana told AGERPRES.
Sport was the perfect way for her, as a teenager, to escape from a lifetime of restrictions and sometimes too boring.
"Before I climbed, life was very boring, I lived between school and home. I didn't do much, it was my big problem, I didn't leave the house, I didn't have a group to be included in, I didn't have any activities," sayid the young woman.
She became part of the National Paraclimbing Team and participated in competitions, but it was difficult for her to travel to Bucharest for training, so this sport remained a passion.
"In the west part of the country I couldn't find a coach willing to take over me and I had to give up, no matter how much I wanted to go further. Therefore, my new dream is to break these barriers for other children with disabilities who may feel marginalised and do not have access to certain activities. My goal is to work voluntarily with these children, to open an NGO and to set up a recreational activity room that also has facilities for climbing," said Ariana.
She added that climbing has also taught her to trust people.
"You have to trust the coach, he holds the rope and gives you the instructions, you rely on him, it's a kind of chemistry. When you're on the wall up high, that's what matters. I've had three coaches since I've been doing this sport and each one has helped me grow and given me a boost. There were also falls, but in this sport, you also have to know how to fall, if you want not to get injured."
The young woman has already volunteered and helped many children discover climbing, and now she wants to take it to another level.
"I want to go to France to college. I have taken steps and I am waiting for their answer. After graduation, I want to work with people with disabilities, in climbing, to be an instructor," Ariana said about her plans.
She is already attending post-secondary courses with a balneophysiokinetotherapy and massage profile at the Sfanta Maria Special High School in Arad, where she finished the 12th grade. At the same time, she is a student of paedagogy at the Vest University of Timisoara.
Maria Porusnicu, the principal of the high school where the young woman studied, has only words of praise about her and reveals another talent of Ariana: writing.
"She is one of the children we are most proud of. Ariana is involved in many activities and very self-controlled. She is also our first student to write and launch a book, after the Romanian language teacher encouraged her, noting her talent for writing. She went through secondary school and high school in our country, she was a diligent girl from the beginning, with a merit scholarship. I want to tell you that from her passion for climbing we came up with the idea of arranging a special wall in the school's recreational activity room, once the modernisation was completed two years ago. There she helps other children discover this sport," Porusnicu told AGERPRES.
About the book, Ariana said that it was a surprise planned by her teacher, and when she was invited to an event, she found out only there that she would participate in the release of her own story.
"I wrote the book when I was 15. My Romanian teacher thought I had talent and asked me to write texts. He continued to ask me for texts, which she gathered. I just suspected that they could collect them for a book, but I didn't think it would be something for release. One day, when we were at school, we were told that we were invited at 10 o'clock to an event in the club. We went, there were a lot of people, and it was announced on stage that the book 'The Next Hour' would be launched. Then I realised that it was my story, my texts that I sent to the teacher were placed in a book. It is an autobiography, about my childhood years in France, the readaptation to the return to Romania, the discovery of the passion for climbing. The book was commercially available and I was surprised that some people told me that they felt inspired by my story," said Ariana.
She wrote her texts exclusively on her mobile phone, using a notes app.
At 20, Ariana Pero is already very strong, because she has faced many challenges, not only in her daily life, but also in doing the sport she loves.
"My dream of continuing to climb as an athlete was shattered due to the difficulty of finding an instructor who would accept me. I wanted to perform not for recognition, but for myself, for my emotional and physical state. That is why I will help other children overcome all these obstacles, I will work with them without discrimination," concluded the young woman from Arad.
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