Donate for Braille Books-Help Blind children read!

Summary: Main objective of the project is to provide accessible reading material in Braille format to people with any kind of visual disability (from low vision and complete blindness to people at risk of losing vision with time) from economically backward and marginalized communities to promote education. We also conduct awareness programs starting from kids till working professionals about braille & other special needs of Visually Impaired people.

As part of it with the support of funds received through Global Giving project we had produced 13 new books and send 5 copies of each to an inclusive school (Monfort School, Guwahati) from Sep'18 till Nov'18.

 Activities covered at Mitra Jyothi under the project are listed below: Convert to Braille format, proof read and save master braille copy.

1. Convert PDF to word using PDF converter or OCR based on the type of file (editable pdf/image pdf).
2. Edit it to accessible format especially for tables, images, magazine format to normal and correct mistakes if any.
3. Add breaks wherever necessary to indicate paragraph, chapters and other logical breaks as per Braille requirement.
4. Print the braille books, organize and bind.
5. Proof read a copy and do random check of others for pages.
6. Pack and post to students across pan India especially Karnataka.

Background: On 26th Mar 2018, Ms. Madhu Singhal visited Monfort Senior Secondary Inclusive School in Guwahati. It was a wonderful visit that helped us understand teaching at "inclusive" schools and the way "inclusivity" is truly addressed. She met two students of class 12 and got to know the challenges they face. These interactions help us explore various possibilities in which Mitra Jyothi can better support education of the visually impaired. She also visited Jyoti Niketan, a special school for the blind. In Jyothi Niketan, children study from nursery classes to class 5 post which they move to Monfort School under an inclusive environment. These children are very well trained in Braille.They learn Open Braille till class 2 and post that they focus on contraction. Ms Madhu was very impressed with the teaching methodology and has decided to support their education by means of providing them necessary Braille material and also send them "Insight", our English publication in Braille. The children were very bright and well educated. This clearly shows the dedication of both the schools, the teachers and importance of Braille and the perfection it brings in.