[nfbwatlk] Fw: an essay

Wed Nov 25 18:40:17 UTC 2009

Hi,
Yeah, that was good.  Maybe it should be in the Monitor.
Thanks
Lauren
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "KAYE KIPP" <kkipp123 at msn.com>
To: "NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List" <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Fw: an essay


> Wow.  Good essay.
>
> Kaye
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
> To: <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 6:40 PM
> Subject: [nfbwatlk] Fw: an essay
>
>
>> ----- Forwarded Message -----
>> From: "Mary Ellen" <gabias at telus.net>
>> To: <list at cfb.ca>
>> Date: Monday, Nov 23, 2009 13:31:04
>> Subject: an essay
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Joanne, our nineteen-year-old daughter, is studying in Guatemala this 
>> semester. As part of her philosophy course, she studied nongovernmental 
>> organizations, (NGO'NESS). This is the essay she wrote comparing 
>> effective and ineffective NGO's.
>> The whole movement toward social and human services would be greatly 
>> enhanced if those making decisions remembered respect, education, and 
>> offering a genuine hand up.
>>
>> Joanne Gabias
>> Philosophy 235
>> Essay 3
>> Don't Be Blinded by the Glamour
>> Many humanitarian organizations put on a show that will please the 
>> donors. They tell them what they want to hear to receive funds. However, 
>> these funds sparsely  are properly distributed to the benefit of the 
>> recipients. The best way to measure the effectiveness of these 
>> organizations is to see how they respect their recipients, their methods 
>> of education and if they are giving people a hand up or a hand out. I 
>> will be looking at two different organizations to illustrate the 
>> difference between a positive and effective humanitarian organization and 
>> an organization parading as one.
>> To be able to help someone you need to first understand who they are as a 
>> person or as a people.  You cannot pretend that they are any less than 
>> they are. You cannot downplay their identity. Once you acknowledge them 
>> for who they are you have to respect them for who they are. From there 
>> you are able to figure out what you are able to do in helping them in 
>> whatever way they need to further their personal improvement.
>> The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the largest organization 
>> for the Blind in the United States. Respect is at the core of everything 
>> they stand for and fight for. They do not run from the word blind. They 
>> embrace it. They believe "The real problem of blindness is not the loss 
>> of eyesight, but the misunderstanding and lack of information which 
>> exist. If a blind person has proper training and opportunity, blindness 
>> can be reduced to the level of a physical nuisance." (NFB)
>> The CNIB on the other hand, fears the word blind. The CNIB is a Canadian 
>> organization that focuses on the prevention of blindness and support of 
>> people with vision loss. Their name used to signify Canadian National 
>> Institute for the Blind but they have since changed it to simply CNIB. 
>> There were two reasons for the change in name. The first was they didn't 
>> like the word Institute, rightly so. The second was they didn't like the 
>> word Blind. They refuse to call anyone they help Blind, even if they are 
>> 100% blind. They prefer to use the word vision impaired or affected by 
>> vision loss for everyone they help. This is the core of their 
>> ineffectiveness. If you are terrified to understand people for who they 
>> are, you are not able to truly respect them and therefore are unable to 
>> help them in any way.
>> Once you recognize and see the value in who you are trying to aid, you 
>> can find ways of facilitating their needs through education. Education is 
>> the basis to all self-improvement. You cannot grow if you do not have a 
>> method of doing so.
>> The NFB's main focus of aid is through education. They have programs for 
>> all ages, infants to seniors, for all degrees of blindness, legally blind 
>> to completely blind, for parents of blind children to blind parents, for 
>> newly blind and so much more. Their goal is to help people "understand 
>> the real problems of blindness and try to develop innovative education, 
>> technologies, products and services that help the world's blind to 
>> achieve independence." (NFB)
>> Since the CNIB does not believe in the word blind, their goal is to try 
>> to help you use the little vision you have as much as possible. They have 
>> products and services that help you continue to use your sight.  CNIB is 
>> not directly responsible for the education of blind children, though they 
>> frequently raise funds using children. Nevertheless, their philosophy of 
>> using vision instead of developing blindness techniques has been adopted 
>> by the education system of Canada. In schools, at least partly because of 
>> the influence of CNIB, children are not taught how to read Braille rather 
>> how to use large magnifying glasses to slowly read print. This in fact 
>> hinders the child. Once they become fully blind, they will have no way to 
>> read or write anymore. They will have to read learn all these things when 
>> they could have been taught them in the beginning. Learning  blindness 
>> techniques would not prevent them from using their small amount of 
>> vision. In fact, knowing blindness skills make
>> s the use of small amounts of remaining eyesight more useful because 
>> sight can be used in situations where it will truly help and blindness 
>> techniques most of the time because they work best. If the person knows 
>> no blindness techniques, the person has no choices.
>>  The CNIB looks at blindness or vision loss, as they call it, as a huge 
>> problem that has little hope without their services. This is clearly 
>> embodied in their slogan Vision Health, Vision Hope.
>> If they want to be an effective and positive organization, CNIB must 
>> start giving their recipients a hand up and not simply a handout. They 
>> should be a supporting aspect of a person's self-improvement not the 
>> provider of cradle to grave services, most of which a well trained and 
>> independent blind person does not need. Their goal should be to give 
>> their recipients the means of coming to their own ends. They shouldn't 
>> consider themselves the saving god of their recipients or their only way 
>> to happiness.
>> The National Federation of the Blind believes that every person is an 
>> ordinary person, some just happen to be blind. It is the same as if you 
>> are missing your pinky finger on your right hand, it's annoying but it 
>> doesn't make you any less capable than anyone else. The NFB provides 
>> measures of helping you attain  your full potential and assists you in 
>> achieving your goals. There are blind welders and blind painters even 
>> blind people who have climbed to the top of Mount Everest. The NFB is 
>> also a positive support when faced with prejudice and discrimination  in 
>> the work place or other institutions. The NFB helps people fight many 
>> battles of inequality due to blindness. My own parents have benefitted 
>> from the help of the NFB in this matter. The airlines wanted to take away 
>> their right to walk by refusing to let them keep their canes with them on 
>> the plane.
>> The CNIB see themselves as the facilitator of happiness for their 
>> recipients. They believe that through their products and support, their 
>> recipients are able to live a more enjoyable and hopeful life, as much as 
>> they can without their eyesight. They see themselves as the light at the 
>> end of the tunnel. They unfortunately do not have programs or services 
>> that help their recipients personally grow and prosper. The CNIB "needs 
>> to be needed" by blind people they perceive as perpetual clients. The 
>> more they're needed, the more funds they can raise from the public.
>> Many people especially in Canada see names like the CNIB and believe they 
>> are helping their recipients achieve a better life without really looking 
>> into what the agency does to help their recipients help themselves. Many 
>> people believe when an organization claims to be helping their recipients 
>> that they truly are doing so.  Donors need to look into the three aspects 
>> of an organization as explained above, respect, education and hand up or 
>> handout, to determine if an organization is truly helping their 
>> recipients. People need to stop being blinded by the glamour of good 
>> intentions.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> References
>> "NFB- What Is the National Federation of the Blind?". National Federation 
>> of the Blind. Nov 24 2009 
>> http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Who_We_Are.asp?SnID=983196946
>> "CNIB- Vision Support". CNIB. Nov 24 2009. 
>> http://www.cnib.ca/en/services/vision-support/Default.aspx
>>
>>
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