CRIF supports social projects organized by secondary school pupils in Poland

CRIF supports the initiatives of committed young people who are including innovative technological solutions in their projects. In 2020, CRIF has decided to sponsor projects organized in Poland by secondary school pupils dedicated to the removal of barriers and levelling of educational opportunities.

“Open your eyes to blind people” is the slogan of a project aimed at supporting visually impaired children in their development, learning and establishing relationships with their immediate surroundings through special books. The project is called 100naSTART, because the initial aim is to print 100 books that will be delivered to children through foundations and schools working with blind and visually impaired children.

This project was initiated and is run by pupils from the Jan III Sobieski Memorial Secondary School No. 2 in Kraków: Mateusz Badura, Aleksander Graca, Julia Gorczowska, Marta Szaflarska, Piotr Pliszka and Piotr Mader. The team has been working together since September, and the project is based on a concept proposed by its leader, Mateusz. His mother designed 10 prototypes of sensory books for young readers with visual dysfunctions as part of her PhD dissertation submitted in January this year at ASP Academy in Kraków. The 100naSTART team started from this concept, and as a part of the “Exempted from Theory” contest, these young people undertook an ambitious task of collecting 35,000 zloty to print the first run of these extraordinary books. Apart from their activities on zrzutka.pl, the students also organized public fundraising with the help of volunteers. With their dynamic actions, honesty and infectious enthusiasm, they managed to collect over 24,000 zloty in two months!

The students’ commitment, support from parents and teachers and modern UV printing technology made the dream of making sensory books available to very young readers with visual dysfunctions come true. Layered UV printing is a new technology increasingly used for advertising products and packaging. Here, as part of the 100naSTART project, it will be used for a very worth purpose, i.e. improving the availability of culture and solving a serious social problem, the lack of tactile illustrated books for young readers.

With their beautiful artistic design, these books contain raised, tactile illustrations, and text in combined black and Braille print. In this way, a parent who is not visually impaired can read to a child with a visual dysfunction, and vice versa. The author of these books (text, illustrations, design and development of the production method) is Karolina Banaszkiewicz Badura, D.F.A., and what is most important, they are universal and can be used by all children, with normal sight, visually impaired or blind, and by their families. They were prepared in cooperation with early childhood special educators and tested and very well received by a group of blind children. Spatial pictures in the books together with accompanying texts support the development of imagination and introduce a number of spatial and graphical aspects. Books with structural print will also certainly prove to be attractive to children with normal eyesight. The only stumbling block is... the price. At the moment, these books are not for sale and the first print run will be given to children through relevant foundations and educational institutions.

CRIF supports this project financially, so the raising of funds needed to print the books is almost complete. The project can be supported through donations via social media: Facebook – 100naSTART and Instagram – 100.na.start.

Find out more about the books themselves also on the author’s website (in Polish): www.gimnastykawyobrazni.pl