Training For Empowerment
By empowering, we refer to a holistic process of self-development that helps re-discover the person’s self-confidence. This is the first step towards self-actualization or awakening that implies the sensing of our hidden and unexploited potential. By leveraging this new awareness, the participants will set in motion a self-development process that will help set new life and professional goals.
All this will be done through various workshops as follows:
Independent Life Skill Workshop
This focuses on empowering blind and partially sighted children and adults, by providing a safe and supportive learning environment. We offer counseling and guidance, orientation and mobility, daily living skills (cooking, cleaning), ways to maintain personal hygiene and also some Basic English words and phrases to make people feel more confident and independent. In short, all the skills needed to develop independent living.
Personality Development Workshop
Our society today is highly dependent on visual impressions. Since movement patterns are often learned through observation and imitation (i.e. as an incidental process), many blind people never learned ‘normal´ body movements and awareness from their family or relatives.
Instead they can often develop peculiar movement habits known as; “Blindisms” (for example, some shake their heads or bodies, others insert their fingers in their eyes, some face the ground while talking, others engage in rocking and bouncing).
Therefore to enhance their social interaction we offer training on verbal and non-verbal communication skills like greeting, hand shaking etc., public speaking, various emotions and facial expressions, body language, body posture, gestures, stage movement and space awareness. Further, the blind participants will be trained in life skills like self-awareness, problem solving, interpersonal relationships, empathy, coping with stress, coping with emotion, decision making, creative thinking and critical thinking which enables their psycho-social competence.
Dance Workshop
Let’s ask these question.
“How can I dance, if I am blind and have never seen anyone dancing and moving to rhythms?”
“How can blind people learn to dance and achieve the same pleasure and eventually the same level as a sighted person?”
The Dance workshop is tailored to the blind person, empowering them to dance together with their sighted peers. A few basic dance moves will be taught that are helpful for them during social gatherings. Moreover, through the workshop, the participants will explore other senses, that are often neglected.
All this will be done through the rhythms of fun South Asian dance, including Bollywood, Nepali dance and the overall good and enjoyable music.
Since one of the major senses for blind people to connect to the world with is sound, we are also using acoustically guided dance that will connect blind dancers to their dancing.
Furthermore, several body percussion exercises will be conducted, where the participants will learn to use their own body as their own musical instrument to create a rhythmic movement pattern.
Blind Rocks not only conducts dance workshop in Nepal but we also conduct dance training workshop around the world where and when given opportunity. So far we have conducted dance workshop in India, Russia, Poland, France etc. View captured moments from these workshops in the photos section under menu “Media”.
Theater Performance Workshop
Social change does not happen overnight, nor just through sweet talk.
Action and demonstrating the change is often much more effective.
We use theatre as one of the methods to create a positive change of Mind-set in wider society to alter the perception towards blind people. The training in theatre helps blind participants to express their emotions, feelings and stories as well as the various prospects of life and society in an artistic way.
Fashion and Beauty Workshop
It is said that the more physically attractive and socially skilful we are, the easier it is to interact with others. It is not a must, but we should at least be aware of that when the need comes. Up-to-date hair styles, appropriate and skilfully applied make-up and recognition of attractive dress, can be mysterious for blind people of any age, who have no one to help them fill these important gaps in their knowledge.
We enable blind people by providing access to the latest fashion trends and styles. They should be able to go to shopping malls, choose their clothing with confidence and use cosmetics skillfully.
It empowers blind people to access the latest fashion and cosmetics. Special skills will be taught for identifying new clothes, appropriate clothing for specific occasions, and proper application of makeup. These skills will boost self-esteem and propel them to engage positively in society.
