Presentation of donation 2007
Braille Printer Donated to School
We take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude once again to all donors, participants, business partners, associates and friends who have helped us raise funds at last year’s AAH! Golf Tournament for the purchase of a Braille printer for the Veljko Ramadanović School for Visually Impaired Children in Zemun. We extend out particular thanks to the Golf Club Belgrade for their outstanding cooperation.
Following the official presentation of our donation, we were taken on a tour of the School and acquainted with its work. We realized how much effort and skill needs to be invested in providing visually impaired children with proper conditions for efficient learning. We were impressed by its history and by the long tradition of benefaction linked to its existence.
Here is a short overview of our visit.
 
AAH President Dragan Djordjević officially presented the Braille printer to the School Principal, Ms. Radmila Laban.
Along with a Certificate of Merit, AAH received a copy of the School’s remarkable monograph Hands Reaching Out to the Light, published last year on occasion of its 90th Anniversary.
The School staff acquainted us with the printing process, explaining how the children identify Braille letters and numbers on paper.
 
We were pleasantly surprised to come across a Memorial Gallery in the School, dedicated to its founder Veljko Ramadanović. Apart from the original furniture and other objects Ramadanović used in his everyday work, one specific exhibit attracted our attention in particular - the first talking machine (record player) with the first audio book in Serbian (record with Janko Veselinović’s short story The Godfather’s Curse) produced in Paris in 1937, only four years after the launch of the first audio book in the United States.
 
It was only during our tour of the school that we fully grasped just how specific its needs truly are. Its students cannot use ordinary textbooks. They need to be produced for them specially in a very limited number of copies. Apart from standard, printed books, their library needs to be furnished with Braille books, as well as audio recordings on cassettes and CDs (currently over 1000). For everyday operation, the school uses diverse technical aids for the visually impaired (special magnifying lenses, computers and other equipment). We were particularly amazed by special computer software that reads individual letters, words or entire texts aloud during operation, depending on the users needs.
 
A Multimedia Resource Center is the latest addition to the School. Once it is completed, it will incorporate an audio book recording studio, a department for the production of embossed maps, drawings and diagrams and a number of other facilities. It already includes a Braille book printing department, where the printer purchased with the funds raised at last year’s AAH! Golf Tournament has been placed.
Since its establishment to date, an entire galaxy of benefactors helped the school survive and provide visually impaired children with proper conditions to study and thrive.
We left the school with a feeling of fulfillment, confident that our donation got into the right hands.
Once again, many thanks to all those who have taken part in last year’s charity event.
We hope to see you again in September! |
