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Braille without Borders, run by Sabriye and her Dutch partner, Paul Kronenberg, instruct about 30 Tibetan students who are blind. They teach them to navigate independently with their canes through the chaos of Lhasa, to weave along narrow streets through moving cars and mopeds, around construction sites never protected, and over random holes in the streets, several meters deep, filled with dirty water and excrement. They’re also taught Tibetan Braille and how to use computers with voice synthesizers. Most importantly, she instills in her students a sense of self-respect and hope. Sabriye funds her center on a shoestring budget, only recently having the funds to buy the school building with an advance from her newly released book, My Path Leads to Tibet.
Sabriye and Paul run the Braille Without Borders school in Lhasa, Tibet. Photo courtesty of Braille Without Borders.
WHAT / WHO IS “BRAILLE WITHOUT BORDERS”?
A small international development organisation which aims to create training programs and Braille book printing houses for blind and visual impaired people. Braille is used as the basic tool to impart literacy to blind people. "Without Borders" on one hand means BWB can work anywhere in the world, but more important BWB doesn't want to set any borders for blind people.
Braille Without Borders logo.
PROJECT IN TIBET
In May 1998 the first school for the blind in the Tibet Autonomous Region (T.A.R.) opened. Six eager children between 6 and 12 began to learn how to read and write the Tibetan Braille script. This represented the first small step in a project for the blind in the T.A.R.. It was the start of a training centre which aims to give blind people a chance to participate in society. The training centre for the blind, Tibet obtains four major projects:
1. Implementation of a preparatory school for blind children
2. Production of educational materials for the blind.
3. Preparation of a self-integration program, facilitating the return to local schools and home life.
4. Realisation of a vocational training which gives blind people an opportunity and skills to generate their own income.
BWB works together with the Tibet Disabled Persons Federation.
To fulfil these plans we need your support.
Thank you. Check out the Tibet project's website here.
Sabriye Tenberken,
Paul Kronenberg and the
Tibet Disabled Person's Federation .
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