Entry #3

Our second week in Mongolia was a good one. We were winding down with interviews, debriefing, research, etc. Which was nice to take a slower pace, very much needed. One of the highlights of this week was visiting The Mongolian National Federation for the Blind. We were able to listen to a woman at the head of the organization, who is blind herself. Educating myself on abilities and disabilities has been a huge part of my feminism and my passion for helping people. This was an incredible and heart-wrenching opportunity to be able to listen to how blindness is dealt with in Mongolia. The woman talked about how blindness was a huge burden in Mongolia. Children who were blind would be put in one place and did not have the freedom to walk around and do things for themselves for fear from their parents of getting hurt or hurting others. There also is a lack of education that blind children receive. They often just have to stay home. This woman has witnessed this oppression and wants to change how blind people are treated. This organization is working towards educating and giving teachers the necessary tools to teach blind children in a mainstream school setting. There are a lot of people that have a stigma against blind people, and the way to rid of this kind of prejudice towards people with disabilities is to have all children understand that differences are not deviations from “normal.” What is normal anyway? I loved that this is the progression that the organization is taking. And you can tell that there has been a lot of progress in Mongolia to help the blind. When we all first got to Mongolia, I noticed that there these tiles in the sidewalk that were textured with bumps. After going to this organization we saw that those same bumps were all over the facilities to help lead people to different rooms and to help signal that there are stairs. It was really cool to be able to witness UB taking steps to help the blind. These tiles help people who are blind walk around manholes or trees and signify when the sidewalk is ending with a different pattern of bumps on the tile.

It’s clear that this organization has done a lot. And big portion of their help, is educating and employing people who are blind. They have a school that teach how to massage and how to fix computers and teach how to do daily work such as cleaning the house and taking care of oneself. So, after our talking with people from the organization, we all went to a message place that employs people who are blind. I think that it is awesome that there is a work place that helps people have jobs and doesn’t discriminate based on ability, especially after hearing that people who are not blind have a prejudice against people who are blind.

The massages that we got were amazing. And the person who massaged me was able to tell how tense and messed up my back is and helped with that. Our translator said that her masseuse could tell that she had an internal issue and then rubbed a specific spot on her foot that was connected to that area through muscles.

All in all, it was an experience that I’ll never forget. Thinking about everyone and reflecting on your own privileges has been a huge part of my life and being able to be educated on this organization for the blind was incredibly informative and touching.

#Schyler