“Vedere con il cuore”, la ragazza cieca che scala l’Everest
Si chiama Sabriye la ragazza tibetana non vedente dall’età di 12 anni che, insieme a sei bambini anche loro ciechi, ha scalato l’Everest. La sua storia è raccontata nelle pagine del libro autobiografico che ha scritto “Vedere con il cuore”. Con i piccoli allievi di una scuola per ragazzi ciechi e l’alpinista americano Eric Weihemayer, anche lui non vedente, Sabriye è partita alla conquista di una vetta sul versante nord dell’imponente montagna. Obiettivo del viaggio, far comprendere come non vedente non significhi anche incapace. 31 / 03 / 2008
Francesco Demofonti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_braille
Sabriye Tenberken (born 1970) is a German socialworker and co-founder of the organisation Braille Without Borders.
Sabriye was born near Bonn, Germany, and she became gradually visually impaired and completely blind by the age of thirteen due to retinal disease. She studied Central Asian Studies at Bonn University. In addition to Mongolian and modern Chinese, she studied modern and classical Tibetan in combination with Sociology and Philosophy.
Braille for the Tibetan language
As no blind student had ever before ventured to enroll in this kind of studies, she could not fall back on any experiences of anyone else. So she had to develop her own methods to come to terms with her course of studies. It was thus that a Tibetan Braille script for the blind was developed in 1992, which meanwhile became the official script for the blind in Tibet.
This script combines the principles of the Braille system with the special features of the Tibetan syllable-based script. This script for the blind was submitted for close examination to an eminent Tibetan scholar, who found it to be readily understandable, simple, and easy to learn. As Tibetans at the time had no script for the blind, he suggested to Sabriye that she let blind Tibetans make use of it.
A school for the blind
In 1997, Sabriye travelled to Tibet alone in order to assess the situation of the blind there. Returning in 1998, she founded the Centre for the Blind in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to educate blind people. Before, the blind had not been able to attend school.
The centre started with education of five children with Sabriye initially teaching the children herself as well as her duties of coordinator and advisor. She then became responsible for the training of native Tibetans as teachers and trainers for the blind and she selected and supervised all staff-members.
The project’s progress was not without difficulties - local Tibetans would at times cheat Sabriye, taking advantage of her blindess; many European foundations did not offer Sabriye help believing that a girl who herself was blind could not be successful with such a project, and promised funds from a German association for the blind did not materialize. Sabriye was assisted by Paul Kronenberg who had been working for the Red Cross in Shigatse. In 1998 Paul joined Sabriye in establishing the Project for the Blind, Tibet.
 |
 |
| Sabriye Tenberken (German) Sabriye studied Central Asian Studies at Bonn University. In addition to Mongolian and modern Chinese, she studied modern and classical Tibetan in combination with sociology and philosophy. As no blind student had ever before ventured to enroll in these kind of studies, she could not fall back on any experiences of anyone else so had to develop her own methods to come to terms with her course of studies. It was thus that a Tibetan script for the blind was developed. Sabriye coordinates and counsels the project. She is responsible for the training of teachers and trainers for the blind and initially she taught the children herself. Further she selects and supervises all staff-members. Sabriye is also responsible for fundraising and communication with official and sponsor organisations |
 | ||
| ||
 | ||
 | ||
| Sabriye hiking in the foothills of the Himalayas. |
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento