EBU launches
Onkyo International Braille Essay Contest 2008

1 April 2008

for immediate release

The European Blind Union and its national members in 45 European countries are honoured and pleased to launch for the second time the European strand of the Onkyo International Braille Essay Contest. This is a worldwide initiative planned and sponsored by Onkyo and by Tenji Mainichi, two Japanese firms actively engaged in the promotion of braille.

"Everything is possible and much easier with braille, this world of marvellously arranged dots offering the power of dignity… Braille is day at night, sun in darkness, joy in sadness…" wrote 22 year old Milan Djuric, winner of the Onkyo Braille Contest 2007.

The theme selected by Onkyo and Tenji Mainichi for the contest is "Braille literacy changes my way of life". Through personal experience, applicants will tell how braille improves their daily lives.

EBU national members will be asked to provide an indispensable interface between EBU and the applicants. They will be responsible for the collection, selection and translation in English of the essays which they will submit to the Selection Panel. Onkyo and Tenji Mainichi have generously agreed to cover the costs involved.

As Lord Low put it on the occasion of UNESCO's Mother Language Day in 2005, "if you wish to advance the standard and quality of life for blind people, give a high priority to braille, to its promotion, to its production and to teaching it. Braille is nothing less than the key to liberation for blind people."

For more information about the contest, its rules and time frame, please contact Mokrane Boussaid, EBU Director : ebuoffice@euroblind.org