Sporsho Braille Prokashona, a braille book publisher, has set up a stall at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair, where visually impaired students are found reading.
The stall is just near the exit gate of Bangla Academy.
Mohinee Akter, a higher secondary student at Begum Badrunnessa Govt. Mohila College was one of them, and was reciting a poem by Shamsur Rahman from the braille book.
“Tomake pawar jonno he shadhinota; Ar kotobar bhaste hobe rokto gongai…”
Mohinee Akter expressed her feelings, saying, “As a book lover, I love to come here. The government provides braille textbooks until the secondary level.
If the Sporsho Braille Prokashona had not published braille books for
us, we would not have had the opportunity to read literature. Thanks to Sporsho.”
Sadiya Islam Bithee, a schoolgirl at Motijheel Ideal Girls’ School, came along with her mother, Taslima Akter Lipi. She was seen reading a poem book ‘Alor Nimontron’. Sadiya said that she loves to read stories and poems especially like the books of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay.
“I used to read textbooks only. I could not read stories, poems, and novels due to the shortage of braille books. Sporsho Braille Prokashona is publishing books for us and has set up a stall at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair. Now I often come to the book fair and read new books. I enjoy it very much. We hope every publication will publish at least one braille book for us every year.”
Her mother, Taslima Akter Lipi, said, “My two daughters are visually impaired. Once, they could not read books while visiting the book fair. Later, I learned about Sporsha Braille Prakashani. Now I bring my daughters to the fair. I get pleasure seeing them reading.”
Nazia Jabeen, the founder of the Prokashano, said, “We have been participating in the Amar Ekushey Book Fair since 2011. We have books on rhymes, poems, stories, novels, science fiction, the liberation war, and so on.”
This year, Sporsho Braille Prokashona is going to publish 18 new braille books. Sporsho will formally publish these new braille books on February 24. Already, they have about 131 braille books.
Jahanara Imam’s Ekattorer Dinguli, Muhammad Nurul Huda’s Praner Minar Shaheed Minar, Sumana Safi Chowdhury’s Shastha Tathya, Farsim Mannan Mohammadi’s Ektai Prithibi, and Najnin Nahar’s Alor Nimontron are, among others, the new upcoming braille books of Sporsho.
Sporsho Braille Prokashona provides books free of charge. Nazia Jabeen said that they established braille corners at public libraries, Shishu Academy, and educational institutes across the country so that visually impaired students can read.
