Derjee suffered more than children born blind or blinded at anearly age. She was visually impaired at the age of 15， when her opticnerves suddenly began to shrink. She dropped out of school the sameyear， and struggled between death and renascence. At the age of 17 ，Derjee was enrolled in the school for the blind.
From the beginning she was an excellent student and did well inall the courses， thanks to her fundamentals. She is now a math teacherin the school. Moreover， from 2003 Derjee worked at the MedicalMassage Clinic. Her double salary enables her to support her mother.
In the beginning， when she lost her eyesight she worried that hermother would die before her， because she knew her brother and sisterwould not be able to support her. Now， she brings her mother fromShannan to Lhasa， and pays for her accommodation as well as livingexpenses.
Derjee has three wishes： to support her mother and cater to herneeds and comfort until she passes away; to have a massage clinicin the west suburb of Lhasa， where the hotels are centralized; and todonate some of her income to orphanages and old people’s homes. In2004， Derjee was sent to Beijing to learn SPA treatment.
Before his enrollment in the school， Losung could only speak Tibetan.
Eight months later， he had mastered Braille in Tibetan， Englishand Chinese， and also started to learn massage skills. Losung’s dream：to open a bookstore in Braille， since there is no Braille bookstore inLhasa at this moment.
Niyma Duwan studied English in Britain for one year. His excellentlanguage skills convinced Sabriye that he was a born teacher.
Norbu and Chungla learned milking and cheese-making in Hol23land.
On August 8 this year， Jianqi went to Malaysia to learn about theproduction of educational school material in Braille， and then to Japanto study computers.
Sales of the disk， Tell Me Why far exceeded the school’s expectations.
It was the opinion of several professionals that Suolang Wanduihad a talent for the accordion. He was trained in the music departmentof Tibetan University， and now plays in a band. His ultimate objectiveis to be enrolled in the Central Conservatory of Music.
Norbu announced his ambition to his classmates at the age of 12.
“I would like to be a driver.” At the age of 19， he upgraded his ambitionto “opening a taxi company in the future”。
A boy of 17 said， seriously， “I would like to have a girlfriend. Braille Without Borders： Traveling with LoveSabriye contracted a degenerative retinal disease at the age ofnine that rendered her almost completely blind by the time she wastwelve. Yet， in the face of the misfortune， Sabriye’s attitude is： “Normalpeople are led by their vision， however I am led by my senses; andperhaps sense is more attractive than vision. With the help of Braille， Sabriye was able to study subjects suchas English， computer science， history， and literature. She was acceptedby the University of Bonn in 1992， and majored in Central Asian Culture;she also studied sociology， philosophy， Tibetology and Mongolian.
In 1997， she traveled to Tibet on her own and rode through thecountryside on horseback， wending her way into villages to observehow the Tibetan blind lived.
Sabriye was shocked and horrified by what she saw. Blindnesshere was treated as a curse， and the blind as lepers. Thisphysical defect was rooted in superstition; the Tibetans believedthat the law of karma was responsible for a person’s blindness— that blindness was comeuppance， a punishment for one’s unfaithfulness to the Buddha or unlawful deeds in one’s past life. InLhasa， Sabriye met a blind beggar who had been abandoned by hisparents when he were born; in Zigong， the locals hold to the belief thatnine out of ten blind people are also deaf， and so the “normal” peopleseldom communicate with the blind， who are forbidden from leavingtheir homes. Sabriye once touched a blind child who had been confinedto his bed for a long time， his decaying limbs and overall deathlycondition move her to tears. She also met a blind child who sufferedfrom grevious psychological wounds; as a result of being mistreatedonce too often， he had begun to regard everyone as the enemy， andthrew stones and spit at anyone who ventured too near. A blind girlnamed Solang Bencuo， of the Mairi Village， Gongbujiada County， wasstoned every time she went to fetch water. All she could do was cryall the way back home. She would plead with her parents to let herbrother go out and fetch water instead of her.
The predicament of these Tibetan children drove Sabriye to striveto fight for their rights. She believed that training them in a specialschool would turn the tide of fortune their way， improve their livingconditions， and strike at the heart of discrimination and prejudice rootedin people’s minds.
Sabriye began to prepare for her Tibetan sojourn. She had deviseda Tibetan Braille system， initially for her own use while studyingTibetology. She showed her script to a renowned Tibetan scholar， whopronounced it simple， understandable and easy to learn.
In May 1998， with funding from a German NGO， Sabriye startedto implement her dream. She enrolled her first six students from theeast of Tibet. They started from scratch. She taught the blind childrenhow to use chopsticks， spoons， and canes， as well as toilets; she taughtthem how to distinguish directions， and to differentiate cars’ directions;she corrected their bad habits such as throwing stones， spitting，their use of ‘dirty’ words， etc.
