"Warm books." The winner of the final of the “100 ideas for Belarus”, told about the project of tactile books
The letters embroidered with beads, the drawings decorated with fabric — the pages of the “Warm books” of Anastasia Hanko, the teacher-organizer of the school №35 named after N. A. Volkov, are as kind and soft as their mission. Tactile books for visually impaired fabric children are recognized as one of the best developments of this year in the finals of the republican youth contest “100 Ideas for Belarus” in the nomination “Society, Economy and Social Sphere”.
The idea of the project “Warm books” was born at the moment when, together with her students, Anastasia decided to take a look at the excursion to the regional organization of the Belarusian Association of Visually Impaired Persons “BelTIZ”. The first thing schoolchildren interested in the library. The guys wanted to learn how to learn to read children who can not see. It was then that their little guests were surprised - there were so many adult tactile books on the bookshelves and literally a few brochures for kids.
-The guys and I were immediately inspired by the idea - why not try to make a book for blind and visually impaired children ourselves, says Anastasia Hanko. Dmitry Trofimov, our teacher of additional education, supported the initiative. Thus began the formation of a large friendly team, united by one good deed. We were assisted by volunteers from among teachers, schoolchildren, elderly people, members of the BelTIZ partnership, employees of the Grodno library system. And here is the result.
The first “warm book” that Anastasia made with her assistants was called “Forest Animals”. Its production took six months. The work is laborious and laborious. Braille should be written in mirror image from right to left - no mistake, you need to do everything very carefully. At first there were doubts whether the book would be liked by visually impaired children, whether they could read it. But the excitement was in vain - the project was crowned with success.
-At first, we asked a blind person to evaluate a book where Braille was recreated in the usual way, that is, on paper, and he easily read a poem about a bear. On the next page it was necessary to guess the volumetric application of the hero of the quatrain. And then our "tester" coped. And we breathed a sigh of relief - it means that everything was done correctly, recallsAnastasia.
Today, there are 10 textile publications in the collection of "warm books". Among them there are "Entertaining mathematics", "Pets", "Seasons of the year", "Mysteries", "I know the world." I must say that the books are so unusual, colorful and pleasant to the touch, that absolutely all kids are happy to leaf through them.
New copies of publications periodically replenish the funds of the Grodno library system, are transferred to a boarding school for children with visual impairments. The project continues, and everyone can connect to it. And the victory in the youth republican competition “100 ideas for Belarus”, as Anastasia admits, only gave her confidence in her abilities.
- We plan to conclude an agreement with nursery-garden number 81 for children with visual impairments and nursery-garden number 5, where there are also groups for blind and visually impaired children. We also want to establish cooperation with private medical centers.
By the way, the project of Anastasia Hanko, the teacher-organizer, and her team of like-minded people is really a big deal. More than four hundred children have serious problems with their eyesight and need special literature in the region. There are books in Braille in Grodno, but they are expensive and it is often difficult for libraries to buy them. And then the “Warm books” are ready to help.
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