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બ્રેયીલમાં શુભસંદેશ - નવો કરાર
GOOD NEWS TO THE BLIND
Braillema
Bible – Catholic Navo Karar
Introduction
The
people of the world know that the Bible is the Holy Book of the Christians. At
the same time, still people of various religions are not aware that the Bilble
is not made up of one single book, instead it is the collection of various
books. The Christians are fully aware and it is their firm Faith that the Bible
is the Word of God written in words of different human persons. Further it is
believed that the Word of God is the food, drink and support for their life-long
journey. The readers and the listeners
find greater meaning by drawing water from the same Biblical well and drink
such precious water (amrutvani) in
order to quench their thirst.
The Bible
is divided into two parts. First part is the Old Testament and the second part
is the New Testament. The books which were written before the birth of Jesus
are known as the Old Testament. Whereas the books which were written after the
birth of Jesus are known as the New Testament.
After the Baptism, at the appropriate time, with the unique experience
of his ABBA FATHER, Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day at
Nazareth and in the midst of all gathered there he proclaimed the purpose of
his public Mission – “The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me
to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to
captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year
of favour from the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19).
According
to me, from my experiential knowledge, I must say that every Blind person is
‘the divine eye of the Divine’ – ‘devna
divyachakshu’. To such dear ones, the year 2012 is something special to
them. Why? Because, the Catholic Pope Benedict XVI has declared a special year
(from October 11, 2012 to 23 November, 2013) as the YEAR OF FAITH in order to
know, love and follow Christ MORE in daily life. In this context, I, as the
follower of Jesus, re-call the Mission Manifesto of the greatest Missionary
Jesus – “... sent me to give sight to the blind”. This particular statement has
churned my existence as an ordained evangelist and has motivated me to answer
creatively in proclaiming His GOOD NEWS to all peoples, especially to the
visually challenged persons of my karmabhoomi
Gujarat. Thus, while accompanying various categories of the disabled
persons in North Gujarat, already a year back I was moved to prepare the
Gujarati New Testament in Braille transcription and to present to them as a
precious gift at the beginning of the YEAR OF FAITH. Indeed the present
prepared ‘Braillema Bible – Catholic Navo
Karar’ is a unique GOOD NEWS to all
the visually impaired persons of our Growing Global Gujarati Group. Now let me explain
in brief the genesis and rationale of this innovative project.
Problem statement
- A backward attitude towards life has led many persons in Gujarat to think of disability as a curse. ‘The blind neither have the physical vision nor they have vision for life’, such a negative attitude creates tension among the visual and the non-visual persons.
- The non-readiness approach to tackle the causes of disability, especially on visual impairment.
- Non-enthusiastic nature for life by many non-disabled persons leading them to be non-participatory in the mobilization and rehabilitation of the Persons with Disabilities.
- The blind may have the hunger and thirst for the Word of God of the Bible. But till this date they have no means to read directly the Catholic Bible. Till this date they are deprived of this unique facility in comparison with their normal counter parts.
Logical Intervention
According to the population
census survey 2010, the population of Gujarat is 50,596,992. In which nearly
there are an estimates 10,45,000 disabled persons of all categories in
Gujarat. This is based on the 1.98% of
disability given by the National Sample Survey Organisation. Of these, around 1.5 lakh people have visual
impairment. Around 40% these are school age going children. So we have about 60000 blind children using
Braille in Gujarat.
In Gujarat, we have about 82
institutions who are directly involved in the education and rehabilitation of
the blind persons. Besides these, the Inclusive Education for the Disabled
Children at Secondary Stage (IEDSS) and the Education for All (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – SSA) at the
Primary stage cater directly to the educational needs of these visually
impaired children.
Main Objectives
· To be a leaven to provide
the New Testament in Gujarati Braille transcription to the Blind.
· To enable the visually
impaired persons of Gujarati speaking to read independently without the help of
the reader and to assimilate personally the New Testament in Gujarati Braille
transcription and to motivate them to become the agents in ennobling the human
community to love and serve God and His peoples.
· To give an opportunity to
the visually impaired persons of all religions and cultures to taste and see,
i.e. to experience the Word of God for a meaningful integration and inclusion in
the human society.
· To initiate the blind
persons of Gujarat to have the ‘darshan’
(vision) of God in Jesus by reading the New Testament of Catholics.
· To encourage such visually
challenged persons to challenge the darkness of the world and to contribute
creatively in removing such darkness from the grasped gospel messages of Jesus.
· To encourage the
Institutional heads and the Educational sector personnel to motivate the Blind
persons to read and to grasp the messages for a meaningful life from the New
Testament.
Sources of inspiration
·
Catholic New
Testament in Tamil Braille transcription – 1st time in an Indian
language: When I learnt that
the Second Reading of the Mass was read out by a visually challenged person in
Chennai at the inaugural Eucharist celebration on 9, January, 2011 by the
Conference of the Catholic Bishop’s of India’s Meet (Editorial, The New Leader,
vol.124, No.: 3, February 1-15, 2011. It says: “…she read from Braille Tamil New Testament, newly published by the Tamil
Nadu Bible Commission. This is the blessing to all the visually challenged
people, now the blind can read the Word of God by themselves.)
· Vanche Gujarat movement of Gujarat
Government – Best Reader Competition for the Blind: The aim of the competition was to motivate the blind students to
read inspirational short stories, novels, poems, biographies and books.
Conclusion
To me, in
this context, offering this ‘Braillema
Bible – Catholic Navo Karar’ in the hands of the Blind persons of Gujarat
is one of the novel ways of the New Evangelization process at the beginning
hour of the YEAR OF FAITH. Indeed a greater opportunity is given to us to
CELEBRATE this Faith-filled year as a Grace-filled year in the midst of all
types and all categories of persons with Special needs.
We are
grateful to Alboan and Misiones La Rioja, the NGOs of Spain for their generous
financial support to prepare this ‘Braillema
Bible – Catholic Navo Karar’ in 12 volumes. We also appreciate the Staff of
the Braille Press, National Association for the Blind (Gujarat Division),
Vastrapur, Ahmedabad for their
computerized Braille transcription, proof reading, printing and binding.
 |
| Fr Girish Santiago SJ |
Fr.
Girish Santiago, SJ
Director
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