Awesome Foundation Berlin Winner!
Eva Cambeiro Andrade builds 3D tactile books for visually impaired children.
The winner of the first Awesome Foundation Berlin Chapter grant of 2015 is Eva Cambeiro Andrade. Eva presented the handmade childrens books that she builds with volunteer crafters for distribution to visually impaired children. She explained how three-dimensional models help blind children learn about things that they can’t touch in real life, the same way that sighted children learn about the rhinoceros or about volcanoes from illustrations in picture books. The stories are printed in 2D and in braille, which allows sighted parents to read along together with their visually-impaired children in the same way that sighted families do. The proposal summary Eva submitted can be read on the Berlin Awesome Foundation website.
Eva plans to use the grant money to purchase a 3D printer, which will allow her to machine-produce many of the models that illustrate the books. We the trustees are trying to help her get the 3D printing donated so that the money might instead be used on materials, which are also expensive.
The books are assembled by volunteers. If you are a crafty person or a designer who can help Eva and her team learn to design 3D models for printing, this is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in a project that touches the lives of families. (Pun intended.) Just email Eva at projekt@dbsv.org and tell her how you can contribute.
Eva is originally from Spain and she now lives in Berlin. She studied accesibility for blind and deaf people and has been working in different projects in that field, volunteering in a school for visually impaired children, organising international projects for blind and partially sighted youth, and now creating tactile childrens books. She’s very much into volunteering, creative activities, and social engagement.
Applications are now open for the second of three grants which will be awarded this year. Our next submission deadline is midnight, Saturday August 15. Submit your proposals through the Awesome Foundation website and help spread the word to all the Berliners with brilliant ideas.
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