[stylist] Back from Turkey, project 2

Thu Oct 23 05:15:37 UTC 2008

I also admire you going out to help people bringing NFB standards to
people in developing countries. Even in western developed countries
such as England there is negative views. In a way it is really
positive that Turkey WANTS your advice on how to make the blind more
independant. I could do with a bit of NFB type training in England
too. We work on the individual route system. We don't use shades so
when residual sight goes, if you've been depending on it you just have
to start all over again. Took several months to get someone out as I'm
used to having more residual vision.

Sometimes it is better when an organisation wants to learn rather then
when an organisation think they know it all. I mean like I'd been
going with BVV (birmingham vegitatarian and vegan society) a number of
times. They were ok but then on the last visit I start having them
trying to lower me into chairs. That sort of thing. It really freaked
me out as I was wondering, who was advising them to do that as apart
from a few missed curbs they seemed to have had a much better idea
first time round.

Helene.

On 21/10/2008, Angela fowler <fowlers at syix.com> wrote:
> Robert, glad you're back. I just wanted to say I have the utmost admiration
> for you guys and what you are doing over there. To go into these third world
> countries, where historically and please correct me if I'm wrong, blind
> people have faced discrimination far worse than we in the United States
> could ever imagine, and give those folks that life giving training, that to
> me is admirable.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces+fowlers=syix.com at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:stylist-bounces+fowlers=syix.com at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Robert
> Newman
> Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 1:53 PM
> To: 'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'
> Subject: [stylist] Back from Turkey, project 2
>
> My oh my! Wasn't there a lot of traffic on the stylist list while I was out
> of country! Much about the book and movie Blindness, health being off topic,
> city of lawrence proclamation, poets wanted, and much more.
>
> And as for my trip to Turkey, I did go as a member of Blind Corps (BC). I
> was one of 9 instructors. BC was started by Mike and Fatos Floyd (I am on
> the board). This was our second trip to work with both the professionals in
> blindness education and rehabilitation, as well as blind individuals in need
> of training. BC has a mission to bring to third world countries what we know
> here in the US about providing training to the blind. The blind and the
> government in Turkey are wanting to make changes in services to the blind of
> their country. They are aware of the positive results of Structured
> Discovery Learning (SDL) that more and more training centers in the US are
> going to. Here in Nebraska we've been using it for over 30 years. And so has
> several other states and our own NFB centers. (Nebraska modeled ours after
> what doctor Jernigan established in Iowa back in the early 1970's). We
> provided materials to study on SDL and basically setup and ran a two week
> training center with the same basic classes found in most training centers
> using SDL. We had all students using sleep shades and long canes. We had
> classes in philosophical discussion, cane travel and Braille. There was one
> in home management covering skills like cooking, sowing, cleaning. A class
> in computers. A class in home maintenance covering skills like measurement,
> general carpentry, etc.  A class in techniques of daily living covering
> skills like hand writing, making writing guides, labeling, organizing your
> clothing, grooming, etc. We had daily seminars in which we had topics of
> discussion ranging from employment, to what is reasonable help, attitudes,
> parenting as a blind parent, the importance of expectations, why use sleep
> shades in training, and more. For many of these discussions we used my
> THOUGHT PROVOKERS; I and Fatos were the two staffers who handled these
> discussion times. In the main, we all taught in all skill areas. We went in
> knowing we'd have something like 48 to 54 students to deal with. We ended up
> at the end of the two weeks having served 64. People started arriving on
> Saturday the 4th, with the training officially starting on Monday the 7th.
> We had a day and a half off from the 7th to Friday the 17th. Most evenings
> we had classes up to 10:00 PM; classes started at 9:00 AM. Students wanting
> a certification for credit for attending the training had to complete 120
> hours during the time of the two weeks. We all got along very well; students
> were mostly very eager to learn. Many of our students knew basic English.
> And so yes, we all worked hard, though we had some time to play, like a
> couple of late nights of wild Turkish music and dancing.
>
> So as for a telephone meeting for interested parties? I'm planning to hold a
> Division board meeting on Sunday the 26th during the timeframe we've
> normally had the Stylist telephone conference. So what I am thinking is, if
> you all wished to have a gathering with out me on the 26th, that would be
> fine; you know, not all of us can make each meeting and they really
> shouldn't hinge around me. So on list, discuss if you all wish to meet this
> coming Sunday (not saying we are locked into Sunday nights.) And yes, I'm
> open after this coming Sunday.
>
> And as for my thoughts on the book and movie Blindness, I'm happy we are
> making a public protest. The movie is not a super big block buster that will
> change the lives and minds of our nation, (though it should not be allowed
> to happen without our comment), but I'm not wanting to make it a super big
> deal about knocking it down or around. (I don't think it will get an academy
> award.)
>
> President NFB Writers' Division
> Robert Leslie Newman
> Email- newmanrl at cox.net
> Division Website-
> Http://www.nfb-writers-division.org
>
>
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