Handbook for Women with Visual Impairment - Foreword

For the past several years, All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB) has been running courses of training for blind and visually impaired girls and women in a variety of skills in such areas as daily living, grooming, home management, orientation and mobility, leadership, computer applications, self-defence etc. AICB has also been arranging lectures at these courses for trainees on women-specific issues. The present publication carries papers from various experts on a range of topics covered at these courses. Many of the contributors are themselves visually impaired.
  

The courses and this publication are financed by the Marga Schulze Foundation for the promotion of blind and visually impaired girls and women in Asia and Africa. The Foundation was established by a sighted woman and her blind husband, myself, a retired blind judge from the German Federal Court of Justice. Both of us hope that in the future, too, many visually challenged girls and women can be helped by the foundation.
  

The papers presented here - except those on Indian law - are of great importance for girls and women in other countries, too. It would be our endeavour to make this publication available, through appropriate translations, in various other languages as well.
  

Let me, at this juncture, draw your special attention to the paper titled "Preparing Visually Impaired Women for Leadership Roles in Self-help and Other Organisations’’. ’Your attention’, here refers to the attention of those of you who have not played a leadership role, yet, although you could. Consider, please, that if you are in leading positions, the best way to help is to promote your special interests.
  

Women too often fail to strive for what they want as they don’t believe that they are good enough to succeed. It is vital to note that people with low self-esteem limit their expectations and they often become their own worst enemies. If women would instill in themselves a sense of hope and a strong belief in their capabilities, then we can be able to change a lot of things, and we are half way there!
  

Visually impaired women must never be afraid of reaching the top. Discover your potential and keep yourself absolutely focused on achieving your goal. Although society’s attitudes in some instances seem to have predestined women’s position as inferior. It is high time women came to the forefront to demonstrate their leadership capabilities! Visually impaired women have to learn how to go that extra mile to stand out in their quest for effective leadership.
  

This is the message we seek to drive home to you through the various papers of this publication; this is how we endeavour to proceed to prepare you for taking up important decision making positions and carve out a niche for yourselves in society. Through this information and knowledge would, we hope, flow genuine empowerment, which would enable you to take right decisions and perform successfully in all spheres-whether at home, at work, in your organisations or in social circles.
  

Before concluding, let me also use this opportunity to express sincere thanks to Mr. J.L. Kaul, Secretary General, All India Confederation of the Blind and the Asian Blind Union, who developed the programme for these training courses and has been organising them. 

Dr. Hans-Eugen Schulze

Forewards

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