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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p>Hello everyone,<o:p></o:p></p><p>I hope you are all managing to stay cool in this oppressively hot summer.<o:p></o:p></p><p>I am writing to request new or gently used small blindness-related items for a blind school in Vietnam. My mom is taking a trip to Vietnam in about a month, her first in about eight years, and I'm super excited for her to be able to see our family since COVID prevented any trips until recently. As we've done with her previous trips, we are collecting donations for small blindness-related items that you may not be using anymore for the blind school that I attended before we moved to the US.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Called "Bảo Trợ Khiếm Thị Bừng Sáng," which roughly translates to "Aid to Brighten Blindness," this is a charity run by Catholic nuns that takes in blind children who have been abandoned or given up by families that cannot care for them, and provides a home and education at the same time.<o:p></o:p></p><p>This organization is very important and dear to my family, and we try to help out the nuns with gifts and donations whenever we can. International shipping is prohibitively expensive, so we take advantage of actual travel to get blindness equipment into the hands of the children living at the home.<o:p></o:p></p><p>So, what kind of items am I looking for? Things like slates and styluses, folding canes, handheld magnifiers, Braille/talking watches, Braille labels/stickers, bump dots, small games like Braille cards—basically anything that can easily fit inside of a suitcase.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Anything you can spare is deeply, deeply appreciated. If you can assist with this project, please send me an email or call me at 774-242-4860 and I can provide my shipping address. Feel free to share this notice as widely as you can.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Thanks so much!<o:p></o:p></p><p>Minh<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Shara Winton<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>President, National federation of the Blind of Massachusetts<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.nfbma.org/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>www.nfbma.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:sharawinton@gmail.com"><span style='color:#0563C1'>sharawinton@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>617-304-0347<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>