Braille Without Borders (BWB) is an international organisation for the blind in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...

. It was founded in

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, 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 Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...

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

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 270 km west of Lhasa near

Shigatse Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê () or Rikaze ( zh, s=日喀则, p=Rìkāzé), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histo ...

. In August 2017 it was made public that Chinese authorities will shut down the school for the blind as well as the vocational training farm without giving reasons.

India

* IISE: The International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (IISE) began in January 2009. This school runs an eleven-month-long course to train both sighted and non-sighted people to establish and run their own social projects. The IISE is located at Kalliyoor on the Vellayani lakeside about 12 km from

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the largest and ...

, the capital of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, India.International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (IISE) - Kerala/Indiakanthari - Kerala/India
* In 2011 IISE changed its name to "kanthari". A kanthari is a plant that grows wild in every backyard of Kerala, a small, spicy chili with a number of medicinal values. A kanthari is also a symbol for those who dare to challenge harmful traditions and the status quo, who have fire in their belly and many innovative ideas to make a positive difference. A kanthari will become the symbol of a new type of leader, a leader from the margins of society. The kanthari leadership course lasts seven months andalways starts in May.

Achievements and events

In 2004, Paul and Sabriye and a team of their blind students from Lhasa embarked upon th
Climbing Blind
expedition in Tibet under the leadership of blind

Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its ...

mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer. The prize-winning documentary ''

Blindsight Blindsight is the ability of people who are cortically blind to respond to visual stimuli that they do not consciously see due to lesions in the primary visual cortex, also known as the striate cortex or Brodmann Area 17. The term was coined ...

'' about this expedition was released worldwide to cinemas in 2006.

References

Literature

* Tenberken S. (2003
Path Leads To Tibet''
Arcade Publishing. * Tenberken S. (late 2006 or early 2007) ''The Seventh Year - From Tibet to India''

Media

* 2000 Documentary film titled ''Mit anderen Augen'' () about Braille Without Borders. (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 Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

* 2005-10-17 Sabriye was a guest on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped i ...

'' title
8 Women Oprah Wants You to Know
segmen
Phenomenal Females: Sabriye Tenberken's Journey
* 2006 release of the documentary film ''

'' about the climbing project in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

with Erik Weihenmayer and students from the School for the Blind in Lhasa.

External links

*
Braille Without Borders ''International School for Development and Project planning''
(ISDeP) * https://web.archive.org/web/20171201233112/http://www.blindsightthemovie.com/ {{Authority control Braille organizations International organizations based in Tibet Disability organizations based in Tibet Organizations established in 1998 1998 establishments in China