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I am Running this Bengaluru Marathon to Support Mitra Jyothi

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Updates (7)

Naren and Ashwini are passionate about their fitness – enjoy running as fun and to keep fit. They have been training with Runners High for almost 3 years now.

Both of them are passionate about giving back to the community and see the association with Mitra Jyoti as a part of their goal towards that.

Mitra Jyothi is a registered trust (under Indian Trust Act) located at Bangalore in the State of Karnataka and has been working for people with disability in general and the visually impaired in particular for the past 26 years (started in 1990).

It is run under the able guidance of Ms. Madhu Singhal (National Awardee) who has accomplished many milestones not only in India but also abroad. Mitra Jyothi’s Mission is to assist visually impaired individuals lead independent and dignified lives through Education, Training, Counseling, Communication & Technology so as to integrate them into mainstream families and society at large. To know more about Mitra Jyothi visit us at http://www.mitrajyothi.org/ or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mitra.jyothi

Mitra Jyothi has now taken up the ambitious project of supplying Braille Books in Kannada for visually impaired children from rural Karnataka. This shall be a select collection of 30 story books for children, identified by Mitra Jyothi and aims towards promoting the reading habit in the visually impaired among the rural poor. This is possible only with the availability of accessible reading material! To create and distribute such accessible material in the form of Braille Books in Kannada, Mitra Jyothi has launched the "Donate for Braille Books" campaign. Your help will make this dream come true!

There are an estimated 45 million people in the world with visual disability and one in three of them are in India. India has an estimated population of 15 million people who are blind. The only means of basic education to these people is through Braille.
Availability of Braille books in local languages is extremely limited and is nonexistent for the rural poor. Apart from school text books blind children are completely deprived of reading material.
Mitra Jyothi shall identify 30 different story books in Kannada suitable for general reading for children from class 1 to class 10. These books will be printed in Braille and distributed to the blind schools in Karnataka - there are 30 blind schools in Karnataka that are actively serving children from rural communities.
Production and printing costs of a 100 page book in Braille is Rs.210 per book.
An average Class 1-3 level book shall have about 20 pages and a class 8-10 book shall have 200 pages. On an average if every book has about 50 pages, the cost of each book will be approximately Rs.105 and close to 4600 books can be produced if we collect Rs.5,00,000.
The actual number of books printed will depend on;
1. Total donation amount raised
2. Actual number of pages in each of the 30 selected books
Once the fund raising drive is complete, Mitra Jyothi will publish the status of the project on its website. every detail including the list of selected books, production and distribution status, recipient schools, relevant photos etc will be published on the website.

Help us achieve this dream of distribution of an estimated ~5000 braille books in Kannada! Donate for this most noble cause and share your posts!
Thank you!
Photos of some of our in-house programs to Inspire and Enable the visually impaired
Computer Training using NVDA, an audio based screen navigation tool
Indoor Mobility Training

Outdoor Mobility Training

DAISY Player Distribution and Training

Independent Living Skills Training

Smart Cane Distribution and Training

To know more about Mitra Jyothi visit us at http://www.mitrajyothi.org/ or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mitra.jyothi

To register for Bengaluru Marathon click here.

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27th October 2016

Dear Supporters,

Mitra Jyothi is very happy and proud to say that the Kannada Braille Book Printing Project has started and production of some books have already begin at our Braille Press! This is such an exciting project! Imagine the smile on every child's face as she/he reads through these lovely story books. Simple pleasures that last with us for a lifetime - now in Braille!

Sincere thanks to all our supporters who have made our Crowd Funding Initiative for this project a big success! You have made this project possible!!! Many thanks to the employees of Persistent Systems and Persistent Foundation for supporting this cause as well! As each child a smiles with happiness reading her/his book - your contribution is acknowledged in immeasurable ways!

You are welcome to come and be a part of the production process, come visit us!

Team, Mitra Jyoti

Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/mitra.jyothi/media_set?set=a.1002335763209402.1073741844.100002989634713&type=3 to see more photos of this Project in Progress