Palestinian man enhances method to teach Braille

From the Palestinian News Network:

He won top prize in the “Inspire Palestine Contest.” Sammer Abu Al Rub is a blind teacher from Jenin’s Masalye Village in the northern West Bank.

He continues his search for an institute or a party that will enable him to develop his invention that he has worked on for years at the Noor [Light] School for the Blind.

Abu Al Rub has searched for years to find a way to make it easier on blind Palestinian students to learn the language of braille.

Blind for seven of his 40 years of life Abu Al Rub told PNN today that spirit is the main catalyst in my insistence to search for a change in a blind person's life.” He attended university before he lost his sight, majoring in English and graduating in 1987. He was blinded due to a genetic disorder. Despite the tragedy, the shock and the deep sorrow, his concern over the fate of his family after being told in 2002 that he would never regain his sight, he looked for an alternative source of income.

“I refused to give up,” he told PNN, “and went to the late president Arafat appealing for his help to find a job that would secure my future and my family’s future under these difficult circumstances.”

Afarat answered his cry with “God bless you,” and appointed him English teacher at the Noor [Light] School for the Blind.

“I faced obstacles and began to develop a system of teaching the blind the Palestinian map, the human body. I invented a way that embodies the ‘urinary system’ through paste and I created it from my past experience. I succeeded in that educational method and the student was able to formulate an image in his head through touch to what he was learning.”

“My idea for the invention,” Abu Al Rub told PNN, “was one of the most major difficulties I faced because there were students that lost their sight at 10 years and up and they used to depend on whatever was left of their sight to see the braille
letters, to read them, which are very small and hurt the eyes. So I thought of a way to enlarge the letters. And with God’s help I invented a wooden board that I divided into groups that had six holes. Each group forms a letter and was a way that makes it is for those kids to read it and it is easy to touch also and it is one of the best ways to teach a beginner blind person. The results were big when implemented at our school and my dream was to make it available to every blind person.”

Abu Al Rub did not think twice about entering the Ilham Palestine contest.

“I presented my invention under the name ‘Pain that became hope,’ and my initiative was one of hundreds that were discussed by the specialized committee. After that a personal interview was made with me so that I could explain my idea and I showed it. And then I was awarded with an ‘achieving of the dream’ prize when it was labeled the best initiative and I was given several thousand dollars to develop my invention.”

He continued to say, “Development and application were a main goal and my biggest dream and my school's which is embracing tens of blind people that need this board. Although I was happy with the prize it would still be incomplete and will not be until I achieve the next step which is the development and application. I am still having a problem with finding an institution or a specialized person that is able to design children's toys so as to work together on producing an invention that will help the blind.”

Al Rub told PNN, “I went and knocked on many institutions’ doors, but the search continues so I appeal to everyone to help me to achieve my initiative and my dream that will mean a lot to every blind person.”