Saudi Gazette

AN Indian-based charity organization is making headlines in empowering and enlightening the visually challenged segment of the society. The Global Islamic Foundation for the Blind (GIFB), based in Pulikkal in Malappuram district of the southern Indian state of Kerala, is undertaking a great mission of imparting Braille literacy to those who are visually impaired, irrespective of caste, creed and religion. It has ambitious plans to emerge as a leader of an international initiative with the sublime objective of guiding hundreds of thousands of visually impaired individuals across the world into the light of the Holy Qur’an.

Speaking to Saudi Gazette, a group of the visually challenged officials of GIFB, who came to perform Umrah, explained the great strides being made by the foundation in supporting and empowering their fellow brothers and sisters within a short span of time. In a reception held in Jeddah, they described that the foundation has been instrumental in giving them a new life with a ‘vision.’

“Eyesight is an invaluable blessing from God and there is only a very small segment of mankind who do not have this blessing. Allah created them to test those who have the great blessing of eyesight whether they are giving support and consideration to those who do not have it,” said Mustafa, a schoolteacher. Mustafa performed Umrah along with Abdul Ghafour, Hamzah, and Abdul Hakeem, who are also working in government schools.

They shared with all the miserable condition of most of the visually impaired people in the society. “Some of these people try to make a living by begging in streets and at courtyards of places of worship while some others seek charity by singing songs on buses and trains. There are many others who go to Christian missionary centers where they get food,” Ghafour said, while noting that there were not any facilities for the blind to learn Qur’an and acquire proper religious education.

“Such a situation prompted us to form Assabah Society with the support of the benevolent people of the community to help the blind. At a humble premise of the Society, we learned how to perform obligatory prayer and other rituals as well as recitation of the Holy Qur’an. Our method of learning was primitive with one of our staffers transcribing lessons into Braille language and then handing out the manuscripts to the learners,” he said.

This humble beginning has turned into great groundbreaking initiative with the creation of GIFB thanks to the active involvement and support of two great personalities, according to Hassan Siddeeque Babu, vice president of the foundation. Prominent Indian Muslim leader and Member of Parliament E.T. Muhammad Basheer and Saudi philanthropist Sheikh Abdullah Amer Al Nahdi, founder of Al-Nahdi Medical Company, have been instrumental in enabling GIFB to make its presence felt globally within a short span of time.

“In the beginning, students at the GIFB premises were all poor and destitute members of the society. We first gave them training on how to walk properly as they were afraid of even coming out of their self-imposed incarceration within the walls of their homes,” Babu said. “We gave them entire support and empowered them in all senses of the word. We helped them walk around, become self-reliant and taught them how to make a living by acquiring proficiency in some professions and trades,” he said, adding that destitute men and women in their 40s or 50s who did not know even the ABCD of Arabic language are now memorizers of five or six parts of the Holy Qur’an.

Speaking to Saudi Gazette recently in Jeddah, Muhammad Basheer M.P, national organizing secretary of the Indian Union Muslim League and president of GIFB, said that the foundation has taken up a Herculean task of empowering and enlightening the visually impaired in the society. There are large numbers of visually impaired people, including women, who see the foundation premises as their shelter and asylum. Most of the people at the center are from various parts of Kerala and the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, Basheer said.

“We are doing all these with the firm faith that eyesight is the greatest experience and blessing that the Almighty Allah has bestowed on us. It is a painful fact that there are hundreds of thousands of disabled brothers who did not have enough avenues to learn and understand the Holy Qur’an,” he said. “Hence, it is our religious obligation to show them the way and lead them from darkness to the light of Holy Qur’an.”

The origin of GIFB is the culmination of the dream of a group of highly enthusiastic and motivated youngsters from Malappuram district of Kerala to enable this marginalized section of the society to build a successful life, both in this world and hereafter. In due course, GIFB aspires to become an international Qur’an learning and rehabilitation center for the visually impaired.

“The conditions of visually challenged blind women are very pathetic and miserable. It is extremely difficult for them to have fair treatment even in their homes, needless to say about their education and married life,” Basheer said, adding, “They face numerous family problems and tend to become burdens for many families. Therefore, we gave top priority for them by building exclusive rehabilitation center for women, in a separate compound 200 meters away from the main campus.”

“We serve them best food and other facilities, in addition to providing them training so as to empower them through acquiring skills in trades and handicrafts such as production of umbrellas, chairs, soaps and detergents. We have diverse plans and programs for making them resourceful persons in the society and as such it is highly gratifying to see that five or six among the inmates got government jobs while some others have been hired to lead prayers at mosques.”

There are also intensive training programs in order to enable the person to take up jobs such as office secretary, receptionist, telephone operator, office boy and customer care executive, in addition to train on using smart phones and chair caning works.

State-of-the art Braille press

Within a short span of time, GIFB has succeeded in guiding hundreds of the visually impaired into the light of the Holy Qur’an. As a basic infrastructure facility for the institution, it is envisaging a full-fledged Blind-Friendly Campus for easy and safe mobility of visually challenged people. The campus consists of an administrative block, separate hostel blocks for girls and boys, mess hall, prayer hall, recreation area, computer labs, library, job training center, etc. The students can roam around the campus without the help of others. The campus aims to have a set of unique blind friendly facilities such as self-guiding passages/pathways and staircases, sensors and voice messages.

GIFB has made major headway in realizing its ambitious dream of establishing a Braille press for printing copies of the Holy Qur'an, books, periodicals and news bulletins for the visually impaired. A Saudi philanthropist remains as a stellar pillar in supporting the foundation’s major projects. Sheikh Abdullah Amer Al Nahdi was instrumental in realizing the dream of having a dormitory for the visually challenged poor people in the society.

As a first step in setting up a blind friendly campus, GIFB has constructed a three-floor hostel block on a plot whose area is around 35,000 square feet. Siddeeque Babu, an official of Al-Nahdi Group, said that Sheikh Abdullah Amer Al Nahdi had donated the full amount of money for the construction of the hostel building. He has also promised to meet the cost to set up a state-of-the-art Braille Press Complex.

Al-Nahdi inaugurated the building during a three-day national level conference of visually challenged held in October 2016 at the GIFB premises. More than 400 delegates representing the visually impaired community from a number of states in addition to a mammoth presence of the local public attended in one of the biggest gathering of its kind in the country.

The dignitaries who attended inaugural session included Kerala Legislative Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishanan, Former Industries Minister PK Kunjalikkutty, Sheikh Abdullah Amer Al Nahdi, Dr. PA Ibrahim Haji, former Member of Parliament Abdussamad Samadani, Dr. K Muhammed Basheer, Munavvarali Shihab Thangal, Kottumala Bappu Musliyar, T.P. Abdullakoya Madani, Sheikh Muhammed Karakkunnu and Dr. Hussain Madavoor

The biggest challenge being faced by the institutions for the visually impaired is the shortage of Braille literature materials and publications for the training of students. With implementing the ambitious project of Braille press, GIFB wants to meet the requirements for Braille copies of the Holy Qur’an and other Braille publications from India and abroad. If it is materializes, books and other publications can be translated into Braille language. This will cater not only the needs of the visually challenged in the country, but also those from other parts of the world. The Braille project also includes a permanent setup for Braille Qur’an literacy, mobile Braille Qur’an literacy program, Braille library, and Braille-based computer training and job training centers.

“Our ambitious Braille projects will lead to production of the Qur’an and Hadith (Saying of the Prophet) translations to any languages in the world. We have started paper work to import the press from Sweden and it will realize the long-awaited need of publishing a newspaper in Braille,” said Babu, who heads the Jeddah Kondotty CH Center, which is coordinating all the necessary works in this respect.

At present, GIFB is running five courses in different categories for the visually challenged people helped by GIFB. Most of the courses are residential in nature and are tailor-made to suit the age, IQ and academic brilliance of each learner. Since the teachers need to give individual attention to blind students in activities like writing, the institution is maintaining the staff student ratio at 1:5 and admits only 5 students in a batch. All the expenses including food, accommodation and study materials are being met by GIFB. In addition to this, a monthly stipend of Rs1,000 is also being given to the students to meet their expenses.