World Braille Day is celebrated every year on January 4th because it’s Louis Braille’s birthday. He’s the inventor of braille! This was created in 2019 by the United Nations General Assembly to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people.
This year, we celebrated this day at The Choice School in the company of some representatives of a charitable Society called Hidden Voices, based in Kochi. They represent a group of volunteers of 300 children and an overall volunteer base of over 3000 people from all over the world who read in several languages for the visually challenged. Their youngest reader is about five years old while the oldest is Ninety-two! They aim to help the economically and visually challenged children and adults by opening up the world of books to them.
Ms.Devi Krishna, Founder, Ms. Mytri Rajdev, Co-founder of Hidden Voices and Ms Cincy Mary Philip were in our school to talk about their organization, and to appeal for student volunteers from our school to join them in their efforts to reach out to as many visually impaired people around the world by reading out to them.
The most heartening reason for their presence in our school was to felicitate a group of children from our school who had joined Hidden Voices and selflessly devoted their time to spread literacy and knowledge among their non-sighted friends. They appreciated the fact that these children had taken time off from their busy schedules to create quality audio for those less fortunate than themselves and therefore deserved their gratitude and appreciation. They felt that they were doing yeomen service to the society by truly leading the way for the other young and impressionable minds in their community and the society at large, believing that actions speak better than words!
They appreciated the efforts of the school for grooming and guiding the children into being model citizens of the world, always ready to lend a helping hand to others.
The eight children, FATHIMA SHAJI, JOANN ANIL, JOSHUA PHILIP THOMAS, CHRISTINA ANN GEORGE, ABITHA ABHILASH, REBECCA HARRISON, AARON ABRAHAM THOMAS and POOJA KANNAMMURI ABHILASH were felicitated by our principal Mr.Ajith Jacob with a certificate and a letter of appreciation for the services rendered by them for their less fortunate brethren. “Braille is like a best friend, there for me to turn to whenever I need.’ Said a little blind girl. How about us being their friend too, someone who they can turn to whenever they need us??
