Egyptian Female TV Presenter with Down Syndrome Hosts Morning Show 

On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December, Rahma Khaled Hussein, a 20-year-old young woman with Down syndrome, was granted the opportunity through the privately-run Arab TV channel of ‘El Gad’ to present the channel’s morning show on Monday.

This was done, through the channel’s assistance, to realize Rahma’s dream of becoming a TV presenter.

Through a media statement prepared by Rahma and dedicated to the privately-run Arab news channel of Al-Arabyia, the young woman explained that she was a graduate from the Faculty of Tourism & Hotels.

She added that, with the help of her mother who is a speech therapist, she began training sessions to improve speech and awareness skills for three years.

The 20-year-old dreamt of becoming a television presenter since her childhood. She was trained by the late Egyptian media director Maher Mustafa in the “DMC” channel where she presented an episode.

During the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the UAE based channel of El-Gad granted her the opportunity to realize her lifelong dream.

In tandem to the opportunity, Rahma is also the presenter of her Facebook page videos, in which she explains how to deal with people with disabilities, and other programs for children, according to her statements.

Rahma was born in 1996. She is the youngest daughter of a family consisting of her parents and two brothers; her mother, a specialist on individuals with special needs, discovered that her youngest had Down syndrome at birth.

Rahma is also a fan of swimming which she began at the age of eight. She began swimming trainings and won her first championship in 2009 at the age of 13; she qualified to represent Egypt at the ninth regional tournament in Syria and won four medals.

Moreover, she qualified for the Swimming World Cup in Italy and won first place in the 2010 and 2011 Olympic Swimming Championships, beside the 2010 Women’s Championship.