Visually impaired man's initiative opens eyes

Manila: A musical score in Braille has enabled six blind people mark the Lenten season with a difference in the Philippines' southern Luzon region.

The visually challenged individuals have been happily lending their voices to the traditional rendering of Christ's Passion in Bicol, a local paper reported.

"Three years ago, I helped organise a Braille reading competition," Teddy Ponferada, 50, told the Star, recalling his inspiration to do something for those like him who had no vision in their eyes. Every year since, he has been leading a group of blind people who have been singing the Christ's Passion at Bicol University's Sacred Heart Chapel of the Bicol Small Business Institute.

Armed with a 474-page Braille translation of the 239-page Christ's Passion, by Father Amador Cruz, Ponferada and five other blind individuals have been singing about Christ's birth in Bethlehem, his suffering and his death by crucifixion in Golgotha, two thousand years ago.

As Dande Revale closed his eyes and slid his fingers over tiny dots from the pages of a book that was a Filipino translation of a Latin hymnal, he prayed,:"I hope the Lord will restore the sights of my blind friends."

"Before, we just listened to the singing of the Christ's Passion. Now, people are listening to us," said Joan Loria.

The group seeks to help people with disabilities fight problems of confidence and self- esteem.

Ponferada recalls receiving Braille magazines from his Malaysian friends and, later receiving an invitation to join an international Braille-reading competition in Kuala Lumpur. "After that, I was challenged to host a Braille reading contest using Catholic reading material in our hometown in Legazpi," he said.

His group decided to work on an old musical score in Latin that had already been translated into Filipino. The National Library sponsored the effort. Mayor Noel Rosal of Legazpi City donated 10,000 pesos (Dh887) to aid the project.

It isn't just about singing either, Ponferada says. Blind people "are being trained to be masseurs" by his group. "The deaf and mute are given lessons in hair science," says Ofelia Vega, head of the institute that has adopted the group.