Imagine a place where blindness is considered a punishment for the sins committed in your previous birth and the visually-impaired live as outcasts! Sabriye Tenberken, a German who became visually-impaired at the age of 12, encountered this in Tibet. She visited the country in 1997 for an academic project.

Her visit had a profound impact on Sabriye, who opted out of her studies on Tibetology and Central Asian Sciences in Bonn University, and created Tibetan Braille script. In 2002, she co-founded Braille Without Borders (BWB) in Tibet with her partner Paul Kronenberg, who was ready to “realise my crazy ideas”. BWB made huge leaps with training programmes for the blind and establishing Braille book printing houses. Instead of making others do something for the blind, the duo decided to empower the visually-impaired with these vocational activities. “When I came up with the idea of empowering the blind, many discouraged us. Yet, in Tibet we did many things that was not done before and created new professions for blind people,” says Sabriye.

Three years later, in 2005, they together shaped Kanthari International Institute for Social Entrepreneurship and Innovators in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, which the couple describe as “a spring board for the blind”. While BWB was more or less a pilot project, Kanthari metamorphosed into a global project.

Sabriye believes that blind people have their own strengths. “Blind people have a lot to contribute to society. They have excellent ability to stay focused as Hollywood and Bollywood don’t distract them much,” says Sabriye.

Both Sabriye and Paul wanted to establish Kanthari in the centre of the world and hence they narrowed down on Kerala. While naming the institution too, they were conscious that it should resonate the power of visually-impaired. Hence, the name Kanthari, which refers to the tiny green chilli that grows aplenty in Kerala. “Kanthari, which is spicy, has so much medicinal values. Just like it grows abundantly in the backyard of houses in Kerala, smart kantharis are growing in the same manner on the margins of society, and they are not destroyable,” asserts Sabriye.

The institute, over the years, has become a centre for building up leadership among different kinds of people — the visually-challenged, physically handicapped, albinos, women who encountered violence and more. Kanthari runs a seven-month leadership programme, where 20 to 30 people from all over the world are trained. Participants are taught to use the computer. They also teach science and mathematics to visually-impaired students.

Money is still a challenge for the duo. Sabriye admits that they are not good at it. “We are more interested in doing things and are not perfect fund-raisers. Yet, we have experts, who act as catalysts, interact with participants, teach and learn from them as all are survivors of some kind.”

Kanthari campus

When Sabriye works on the software, Paul takes care of the hardware — infrastructure and administration. Presentations and interviews are done together. Paul developed the Kanthari campus, which is eco-friendly. Set in the Laurie Baker model of construction, it has adopted methods for energy conservation. There are facilities for rainwater harvesting, tapping solar/wind energy and grey water treatment. As they have Ecosan toilets, liquids are separated from solids where the solids go into the bio-gas system and the liquids are used as fertilisers. Water from hand wash and shower is recycled and used for flushing toilets.

Sabriye also dons the hat of a motivational speaker, and her book, My Path Leads to Tibet is an international best-seller published in 14 languages. She also has to her credit two more books — Tashis Neue Welt and Das Siebte Jahr (The Seventh Year). In all these years, Sabriye and Paul garnered many international awards and honours. But a humble Sabriye would prefer people focus on their work and not the duo. As she says, “What we do is important and not what we receive.”

SOURCE: http://newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Breaking-barriers/2013/09/02/article1760039.ece