Sharjah24: In keeping with its mission of empowering children and facilitating their access to knowledge, the Kalimat Foundation (KF) has further enriched the lives of blind and visually impaired children in Hebron, Palestine, by supporting the Blind Charitable Society’s efforts of opening them up to world of letters and learning.

The Sharjah-based global non-profit has gifted 1,400 Braille, large print, and audio books to the award-winning charitable society, which will benefit the 67 children it serves. 

Part of the Kalimat Foundation’s Ara (I See) initiative that promotes awareness about the issues of blind and visually impaired children, this contribution furthers the non-profit’s mandate to fulfil the fundamental right of children to read and learn irrespective of their circumstances through better access to books and other knowledge sources.

Commenting on the book donation drive, Amna Al Mazmi, Manager of Kalimat Foundation, said, “It gives us great pleasure to fulfill our objective of providing books and knowledge to all children, including the visually challenged, with this donation to Palestine’s Blind Charitable Society.”

“Among Kalimat Foundation’s core priorities is to make learning resources readily available to blind and visually impaired children. Therefore, the projects we have been undertaking under our Ara initiative are strategically focused on increasing the production of reading materials in accessible formats as well as ensuring they reach the end user. With the delivery of another successful project, we reaffirm our humanitarian mission to deliver books and knowledge to children of all abilities, age groups, backgrounds and communities around the globe.”

Eng. Rateb Al Bakri,Head of Blind Charitable Society, noted, “We are profoundly grateful to the Kalimat Foundation for supporting our cause with much-needed Braille, large print and audio books. This contribution has brightened the education prospects of our children and will have a tangible impact on their present and their future”. 

“Our organisation has long been bringing real change for the better in the lives of these children in Hebron, empowering them to benefit from improved education which leads to better life chances. This partnership with Kalimat Foundation has not only boosted the impact of our work but also brought a ray of light into the lives of these unfortunate children,”Al Bakri added. 

The Society recently won the prestigious Prince Mohammed Bin Fad Award for the best charity performance in the Arab world for the second session of 2019 – 2020.

Bodour Al Qasimi, International Publishers Association (IPA) President, established the Kalimat Foundation (KF) in 2016 to ensure the basic right of every child to read, have access to books, and to cater to the literacy and developmental needs of children, especially in trauma-affected regions. 

Since 2018, KF has been opting for a more inclusive approach to making reading more accessible to the community under its Ara initiative, with the distribution of 5,000 books in accessible formats to children in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine and the UAE.