By Our Special Correspondent
Shillong: Bethany Society which has set the benchmark for inclusive education in the entire region, on Friday achieved another milestone with the inauguration of the Braille Library for the visually impaired which was donated by AMWAY India Enterprise.
Inaugurating the Library, Additional Chief Secretary, PW Ingty said, “I enquired from the Art and Culture Department if they had a Braille library and was told they only had a few books in Braille, hence Bethany Society has done what even the Government has yet to achieve.”
Talking about the joy of reading, Ingty said reading opens up a new world and he hoped that many units with similar facility will be opened up in other parts of the state. Later, Ingty visited the Braille Library and saw for himself how story books were converted to Braille by means of a special computer software and how the special printers then produced the stories in Braille. At the moment Bethany Society has four Braille printers.
Earlier, AMWAY had also donated Rs 10 lakhs for a computer centre in Bethany and Rs 3 lakhs to help with payment of teacher’s salaries and for paying electricity bills for the centre, informed Carmo Noronha the pillar behind Bethany Society. Noronha’s passion has been to provide inclusive education to the differently- abled since 1981.When the idea was first mooted. “Our cup is overflowing not with money but with gratitude to our donors, sponsors and various stakeholders who are supportive of the idea” Noronha added.
Bikramjeet Paul, the Cluster Manager AMWAY based in Guwahati expressed his joy at the completion of the Braille Library at Bethany Society which is the fourth one in the North East. Guwahati, Aizawl and Agartala also have a Braille library supported by AMWAY. Rosa Wahlang, a teacher at Bethany Society informed that students who cannot write are today using computers to write their exams. Hence AMWAY has helped to create a barrier-free environment for education. There are at present 12 Braille computers at Bethany Society.