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A searchable database of over 200 International NGOs operating in China.
The material presented here was compliled mainly on the basis of information supplied (and / or published) by the organisations profiled. We have made every effort to ensure fairness and accuracy, but should make clear to readers that these are independent portraits, not 'authorised' biographies.
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Braille without Borders
Mission: "Integration and acceptance of blind people into/by their surrounding society"
In China since: 1998
Annual China budget: $40,000
Number of staff: 11 national and 2 expatriate
Mainland China contact:
Sabriye Tenberken, Paul Kronenberg
Founders
P.O. Box 01-054 Lhasa, Tibet
Autonomous Region 850000
Tel: +86 (0) 891 6331763
This organisation was first established in 1998 by a German woman who, while studying at the University of Bonn, developed a Braille script for the Tibetan language and a Dutch Engineer. At first, the organisation worked only in Tibet, and was known as Project for the Blind—Tibet. As the project grew, the founders decided to start similar operations in other countries, starting with India, and so in 2002 changed the name to Braille Without Borders. This name also reflects the founders’ determintation to bring down the barriers of social exclusion that prevent blind people from playing a full role in society.
In 1998, the organisation established a rehabilitation and training centre for the blind in Lhasa. This provides four main services:
A preparartory school for children from all over the Tibet Autonomous Region, who are first given intensive ‘orientation and mobility’ training and then learn to read and write the Tibetan, Chinese and English Braille scripts. After one or two years the students are prepared for integration into mainstream schools. By the end of 2003 the preparatory school had about thirty students.
Training for teachers in mainstream schools that receive children who have been prepared by the centre. The centre also helps to provide specialised equipment for blind or visually impaired students.
A Braille book printing house where schoolbooks are printed in Tibetan Braille, using a computer programme developled by a blind, German mathematician to convert Tibetan script into Tibetan Braille. The centre also distributes Chinese Braille schoolbooks published by the China’s Braille Publishing House in Beijing.
Vocational training courses in areas such as medical massage and physiotherapy, music, animal husbandry, agriculture, and handicrafts.This project has been carried out in partnership with the Tibet Disabled Person Federation and it is expected that the Federation will in due course assume responsibility for managing and developing the work.
Braille Without Borders is funded by donations from private individuals overseas, and also seeks funding support from government aid agencies.
Links
http://www.braillewithoutborders.org
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