By Afifah Adi
Edited by Harith Syafiee
Photography session of VIPS, committees and participants | Credit: Publication and Promotion Team of BLINK
GOMBAK, 22nd April 2024: Beyond Blindness: The Link Between Us (BLINK) has made a comeback with its phase 2 programme held on 21st April 2024. In a collaborative effort between CELPAD, Mahallah Aminah, Mahallah Asiah and Mahallah Farouq, BLINK was organised to invite students of IIUM to contribute to the blind people community by providing more resources and easier access for them to learn through braille.
Starting at 9 am, the opening ceremony of the program was held at IIUM Mini Auditorium. The honoured guest, Dato’ Mah Hassan who is the founder of KL Braille Resources shared an inspiring speech on his experience as a disabled blind person and the challenges blind people face in navigating their lives daily.
Dato’ Mah Hassan giving a speech on the importance of braille to the blind people community | Credit: Publication and Promotion Team of BLINK
BLINK was officially commenced with the ribbon-cutting ceremony following Dato’ Mah Hassan’s speech,
Dato’ Mah Hassan with representatives and principals from CELPAD, Mahallah Aminah, Mahallah Asiah, and Mahallah Farouq | Credit: Publication and Promotion Team of BLINK
The programme continued with an extensive explanation by a representative from KL Braille Resources, Sr Munirah, on things participants were required to do. The aim was to type a copy of printed books into a Word document which is an important process before they could get converted into braille books.
Sr Munirah explaining the format required when typing a book into the computer | Credit: Afifah Adi
Participants were then brought to the CELPAD Independent Language Learning Centre (CILLC) to carry out the task of typing the books.
Participants sitting in groups and typing the books assigned to them into their devices | Credit: Publication and Promotion Team of BLINK
The programme manager of BLINK, Sr Fatin Shahira, encouraged more students to participate in the programme, “If you guys wanted to contribute to blind people society or people who has visually impaired, so this programme is actually can help them to provide a lot of resources, a lot of reading materials for them to get them to read with us together.”
She also expressed her hope for the programme to be conducted more in the future.
Free meals were distributed to all participants as the programme lasted until evening, ending at 5 pm. By the end, participants gained new knowledge and exposure to the struggles of the blind people community in reading and pursuing their education.
Photography session with representatives of each mahallah, committees and participants | Credit: Publication and Promotion Team of BLINK
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