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

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. It was founded in

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

, by

Sabriye Tenberken Sabriye Tenberken (born 1970) is a German tibetologist and co-founder of the organisation Braille Without Borders. Biography Sabriye was born in Cologne, West Germany. She lost her sight slowly as a child due to retinitis pigmentosa, and her ...

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 (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

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 (; Nepali: ''सिगात्से''), 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 histor ...

. 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 months long course to train both sighted and non-sighted people to establish and run their own social projects. The IISE is located at

Kalliyoor Kalliyoor is a village in Thiruvananthapuram district in the state of Kerala, India. Demographics India census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given popu ...

on the

Vellayani Vellayani is a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. Location Vellayani is reached via Thiruvananthapuram Central Bus Station at Thampanoor (9 km) and from City Bus Depot at East Fort. It is connected by state r ...

lakeside about 12 km from

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

, the capital of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a 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 regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

.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 but very spicy chili with a number of medicinal values. A kanthari is also a symbol for those who have the guts to challenge harmful traditions and the status quo, who have fire in their belly and a lot of 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 and always 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 (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heigh ...

mountaineer

Erik Weihenmayer Erik Weihenmayer (born September 23, 1968) is an American athlete, adventurer, author, activist and motivational speaker. He was the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001. As a result of this accomplishment h ...

. 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 by ...

'' 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'' ( en, With Other Eyes) about Braille Without Borders. (This won Sabriye the 2000 Charity

Bambi Award The Bambi, often called the Bambi Award and stylised as BAMBI, is a German award presented annually by Hubert Burda Media to recognize excellence in international media and television to personalities in the media, arts, culture, sports, and ot ...

) * 2005-08-15 Sabriye and Paul were guests on a talk show for CCTV 9 in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

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

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'' 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 planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

with

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 Schools for the blind International organizations based in Tibet Disability organizations based in Tibet Organizations established in 1998 1998 establishments in China