Sabriye Tenberken

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Sabriye Tenberken (born 1970) is a German socialworker and co-founder of the organisation Braille Without Borders.

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[edit] Biography

Sabriye 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 ripped Sabriye off, often 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 a German association for the blind's promised funds did not eventuate. 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.

[edit] Braille Without Borders (BWB)

Main article: Braille Without Borders

In September 2002 the project adopted the name Braille Without Borders.

In addition to the school in Lhasa BWB runs a farm and cheese factory for the vocational training of adults near Shigatse and is planning the International School for Development and Project Planning near Trivandrum India.

[edit] Honours and Awards

[edit] Appearances in films/talk shows

[edit] Bibliography

  • Sabriye Tenberken (2000) My Path Leads To Tibet, Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-658-9
  • Sabriye Tenberken and Olaf Schubert (2000) Tashis neue Welt, Dressler. ISBN 3-7915-1998-0
  • Sabriye Tenberken (available in late 2006 or early 2007) The Seventh Year - From Tibet to India

[edit] External links

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