Braille Without Borders

Braille Without Borders (BWB) is an international organisation for the blind in developing countries. It was founded in Lhasa, Tibet by Sabriye Tenberken and Paul Kronenberg in 1998.

Overview

BWB's mission is to give hope and practical skills to the blind and in particular to teach Braille to the blind in developing countries; if no Braille script exists for a particular language in a developing country BWB must first develop it.

Formerly known as the Project for the Blind, Tibet in September 2002 the project adopted the name "Braille Without Borders".

Schools and centres

Tibet T.A.R

*School for the blind: The first centre, a school for blind Tibetan children, was established in Lhasa in 1997.

*Massage centre: A clinical massage centre run and operated by the blind in Lhasa.

* Vocational Training Farm: A second centre, a farm and cheese factory, for the vocational training of adults has been established at Pelshong 270km west of Lhasa near Shigatse.

India

* Leh, information office: An information office in Leh, Ladakh, India has been established. As well as the information office a plot of land has been allocated for a training centre in Leh for the blind of Ladakh.

* ISDeP: The "International School for Development and Project Planning" (or "ISDeP") is being developed at Kalliyoor on the Vellayani lakeside about 10km from Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, India.

Achievements and events

In 2004, Paul and Sabriye and a team of their blind students from Lhasa embarked upon the [http://www.climbingblind.org/ Climbing Blind] expedition in Tibet under the leadership of blind Everest mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer. The prize-winning documentary "Blindsight" about this expedition was released worldwide to cinemas in 2006.

References

Literature

* Tenberken S. (2003) "My Path Leads To Tibet", Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-658-9
* Tenberken S. (late 2006 or early 2007) "The Seventh Year - From Tibet to India"

Films/Talk Shows

* 2000 Documentary film titled "Mit anderen Augen" (English: "With Other Eyes") about the Braille Without Borders project. (This won Sabriye the 2000 Charity Bambi Award)
* 2005-08-15 Sabriye and Paul were guests on a talk show for CCTV 9 in Beijing, China
* 2005-10-17 Sabriye was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show titled [http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200510/tows_past_20051017.jhtml 8 Women Oprah Wants You to Know] , segment [http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200510/20051017/slide_20051017_284_109.jhtml Phenomenal Females: Sabriye Tenberken's Journey]
* 2006 release of the documentary film "Blindsight" about the climbing project in the Himalayas with Erik Weihenmayer and students from the School for the Blind in Lhasa.

External links

* [http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/ENGLISH/index.html Braille Without Borders Official Website]
* [http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/ENGLISH/conceptkerala.html Braille Without Borders "International School for Development and Project planning"] (ISDeP)
* http://www.blindsightthemovie.com