[Nfbv-announce] Building the Federation in Kyrgyzstan

Sun Apr 12 22:57:42 UTC 2015

A request from Brian Miller:

Dear Michael,

I was wondering if you could kindly share the below email with our members.
Serena is a personal friend and longtime Federationist from California who
is currently serving as a volunteer in Kyrgyzstan and is seeking help to
build a training program for the blind there.  Michelle and I have
contributed to her campaign, and hope that others can as well, even if only
a few dollars.  Thanks!

Brian Miller

Alexandria, VA

***

Greetings from Kyrgyzstan Federation Family!

Winter snow has melted for the last time, spring has sprung, and summer heat
is already sweeping the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek.

With each passing season, the movement to change what it means to be blind
in Central Asia grows and thrives even more. A little organization called
Empower Blind People started just a few years ago from the curiosity and
passion of Elnura Emilkanova, who some of you may know from her time in
Louisiana and with the Federation, and Gulnaz Zhezbaeva, who Elnura brought
to be a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind and who is now a vital
part in making the work of this new organization happen.  EBP is growing
from a variety of short-term outreach and training projects to a fully
functioning training center, graduating ten students from its first
comprehensive residential training program of five months, a second
residential training cycle nearly complete with seven new students and three
return students continuing their training and learning to become trainers
themselves, and grant funding secured for a third training cycle to begin in
July with new students and trainers-in-training.  An organization for
Parents of Blind Children has been established and after school programs
will introduce blind children to braille, canes, and blind role models.

When Elnura connected with the Federation and especially when she finally
arrived in Ruston herself, she knew that no one back in Kyrgyzstan would
believe or truly understand what it really meant for blind people to live
full, active, and independent lives unless they saw it themselves, and that
is why she brought Gulnaz to LCB and arranged for other Kyrgyz blind people
and service providers to come to the US and see it for themselves.  And so
the quandry remains, As lond as Elnura and Gulnaz are the primary few who
truly understand the full lives that can be led by blind people, the growth
of this movement in Central Asia will grow very slowly.  For this reason, it
is vital in these early stages of development to get key future Kyrgyz blind
leaders to get that firsthand experience to bring back and share with others
here.

A bright young lady by the name of Hayot will be that next leader.

Thanks to the contributions and support of our Federation Family and others,
She has a summer job at Enchanted Hills Camp lined up for her with the
LightHouse for the Blind & Visually Impaired San Francisco and will attend
the NFB national convention in Orlando in July thanks to the Louisiana
Center for the Blind.  In both of these places, she will connect with
hundreds, perhaps thousands of competent blind role models and peers, soak
for the summer in the high-expectations and positive philosophy of the
Federation, and bring the corresponding confidence back to Kyrgyzstan, where
she will be finishing her English degree at Osh State University, where she
lives in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan.

This is the part where we urgently need your generous support.  Hayot can't
have these unique experiences, not yet available in Kyrgyzstan, if we can't
her there, and the only piece missing now is the airfare from Bishkek to San
Fransisco and back and between San Fransisco and Orlando.  We launched a Go
Fund Me campaign to cover the cost of these tickets and it is 30% funded,
but we can't buy 30% of a plane ticket and 30% of the distance doesn't
connect her to the thriving blind community we know in the US.  Here's how
you can support:

Make a contrribution at www.gofundme.com/blindleadersKG.  This is our most
immediate need to fulfill this project and premiums are available for
contributions of $50 or more.

Spread the word.  Forward this email, share the
www.gofundme.com/blindleadersKG <http://www.gofundme.com/blindleadersKG>
link with your friends, families, and/or other networks.

Is there a creative way you can organize a force multiplier in your
contribution?  Ask others to match?  Take a collection at the office?

Bake sale?  Car wash?  A challenge to do something unexpected?

Join Empower Blind People on Facebook and Twitter @ebp_kg to follow the
exciting things that are developing here all the time, like and share our
posts and help us tell the world that EBP is changing what it means to be
blind in Central Asia.

As for me, Serena, serving as a Peace Corps Bolunteer in the service of EBP,
the action never stops, my Kyrgyz gets a little better everyday, and the
opportunities for learning & growing are limitless.

I look forward with great pleasure to attending national convention this
summer and a brief visit back to California thereafter, and hope to connect
with as many of you as I can!

Thanks in advance for your contributions and support!

With gratitude,

--

Serena Olsen, MAIPS, NCLB

Peace Corps Volunteer, Kyrgyz Republic 2014-15: Empower Blind People

Blog: http://blindbroadabroad.wordpress.com

"We are all born to be the hero of our own story." --Deepak Chopra

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The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
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