THIS APPEAL IS NOW CLOSED - WE HAVE  REACHED OUR TARGET - THANKS TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DONATED. THE TOILET FACILITIES ARE NOW INSTALLED AND WORKING. WE WILL SHORTLY BE LAUNCHING A NEW BWB APPEAL TO BUILD A BAKERY TO TRAIN BLIND CHILDREN TO BAKE FRENCH BREAD - WATCH THIS SPACE….

Braille Without Borders is a charity supporting blind people in Tibet, and LVCF’s sponsor, Redspokes, has been supporting BWB for several years on its cycle tours through Tibet. Recently BWB has asked us if we could provide funding for a project to improve its toilet facilities which have recently been failing -

 

Paul Kronenberg, co-founder of BWB  asked us - “Currently BWB have one project that is coming up and which needs some urgent attention. Our toilets in our vocational training farm have not been working very well and as this is usually not talked much about, it is a very important part of any project!

 

As there is no plumbing or mains drainage there, we wish to install Ecosan toilets - this is a very simple system developed in Bangalore, India, which needs no external infrastructure and composts the sewage so that it can be used to fertilise crops. The whole system is easily installed and the solid and liquid waste is collected in receptacles which when full are simple to empty and replace under each toilet. Water is collected from the roof and is stored and used for personal hygiene inside the toilets and also for washing the main plastic part of each toilet. Only if the toilets are hygienic and working well, the health of all students and staff will be better off. Pls do let us know if this would be something that you would consider supporting.’’

 

We are pleased to respond positively to BWB’s request, and would be grateful for any contributions. Braille Without Borders was established by Sabriye Tenberken, blind herself, who travelled to Tibet in 1997 to investigate the possibility of providing training for Tibetan blind and visually impaired people. Sabriye realised there were no programmes educating and rehabilitating blind people within the country.

 

She then took the initiative to found the present project. Along with her partner Paul Kronenberg they established a school for the blind and helped alter the traditional attitude towards blind people, who for centuries have been viewed as cursed and treated as lepers or worse…..see their website -

 

http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/ENGLISH/index_bwb.html