Train Blind Leaders for Kyrgyzstan!
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Meet Hayot! She has participated in two previous projects of Empower Blind People (EBP), Kyrgyzstan's first and only resource for blindness skills training based on high expectations and a positive philosophy about blindness. Hayot is a student at Osh State University and aspires to be an English translator/interpreter. She is also an emerging leader in changing what it means to be blind in Kyrgyzstan.
EBP is a small and growing organization dreamed up by Elnura Emilkanova while earning her Master's degree in teaching cane travel (Orientation & Mobility) at Louisiana Tech University. She brought Gulnaz Zhuzbaeva to be a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind and currently these two hard-working dreamers are building not just a top-quality blindness skills training center in Kyrgyzstan, they are building a movement to organize the blind of Kyrgyzstan. They can't do it alone and it is especially important that the blind themselves Lead this movement.
But in a place where expectations are low, blindness carries stigma, and many blind people live sheltered lives, leaders are few. Leaders who understand firsthand the possibilities that come with the right training, a positive philosophy, high expectations, and good role models are nearly non-existent.
By funding this campaign, you will deliver Hayot to connect directly with a spectrum of blind role models living full lives for two months this summer. Her stay and experiences are significantly funded thanks to a partnership with the LightHouse for the Blind & Visually Impaired of San Francisco and the Louisiana Center for the Blind . The only piece that remains to soak Hayot in two months of a culture where blindness is merely a characteristic and where it is perfectly normal for blind people to have successful careers, families, and thriving recreational lives is the cost of the plane ticket to get her to and from San Francisco and between San Francisco and Orlando for this year's convention of the National Federation of the Blind .
EBP is a small and growing organization dreamed up by Elnura Emilkanova while earning her Master's degree in teaching cane travel (Orientation & Mobility) at Louisiana Tech University. She brought Gulnaz Zhuzbaeva to be a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind and currently these two hard-working dreamers are building not just a top-quality blindness skills training center in Kyrgyzstan, they are building a movement to organize the blind of Kyrgyzstan. They can't do it alone and it is especially important that the blind themselves Lead this movement.
But in a place where expectations are low, blindness carries stigma, and many blind people live sheltered lives, leaders are few. Leaders who understand firsthand the possibilities that come with the right training, a positive philosophy, high expectations, and good role models are nearly non-existent.
By funding this campaign, you will deliver Hayot to connect directly with a spectrum of blind role models living full lives for two months this summer. Her stay and experiences are significantly funded thanks to a partnership with the LightHouse for the Blind & Visually Impaired of San Francisco and the Louisiana Center for the Blind . The only piece that remains to soak Hayot in two months of a culture where blindness is merely a characteristic and where it is perfectly normal for blind people to have successful careers, families, and thriving recreational lives is the cost of the plane ticket to get her to and from San Francisco and between San Francisco and Orlando for this year's convention of the National Federation of the Blind .
Organizer
Serena Olsen
Organizer
San Francisco, CA