Hanania Cohen is a blind man who serves as chairman of the Kiryat Shmona Municipality Employee Committee.<\/p>\n
Without the close escort of his guide dog, he would not have been able to achieve this position.<\/p>\n
We all have dreams and goals that we strive to fulfill and achieve, even though sometimes they seem far away and almost impossible to reach.<\/p>\n
For a blind person in Israel, the dream of living independently and making a living with dignity is, unfortunately, far from being reachable. Many blind people cannot enjoy this freedom, which we take for granted, without the close escort of a guide dog.<\/p>\n
Hanania Cohen, Chairman of the Kiryat Shmona Municipality Employee Committee, succeeded in fulfilling a dream that is challenging for anyone: reaching a position of senior influence in his city, in a role that allows him to help many people and lead the employees of the Kiryat Shmona Municipality.<\/p>\n
Hanania, 46 years old, is a blind man who does not take a step without his guide dog Zen, who has been accompanying him for years.<\/p>\n
For Hanania, reaching such a position is a huge step, which would not have been possible without a guide dog.<\/p>\n
“Wherever I am, my dog Zen is with me. He is part of me. Without him, I would not be able to fulfill my position or reach it at all. On a normal workday, in every discussion at the municipality or even in protests held in our city, Zen is with me and allows me to function almost like a normal person.<\/strong><\/p>\n It is important for me to clarify that a guide dog is not a kind of luxury or a pet. It is an existential need for a blind person, because without it there is practically no ability to move around independently. It is important for me to point this out, so that more blind people can, like me, lead an independent lifestyle, and beyond.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1435,"template":"","class_list":["post-1529","storie","type-storie","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","story-type-guide-dogs-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/storie\/1529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/storie"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/storie"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}