Bartimaeus is a project run independently of the ACBM by members of the Bangalore ecclesia and a UK-based fundraising committee
Bartimaeus Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired was registered as a Charitable Trust in 2005. It was set up to provide educational facilities for blind and partially sighted young men and women in India. It started in Bangalore in 2004, like so many organisations in India with only basic equipment and temporary teachers. There were seven completely blind or partially sighted students and it operated from an empty garage.
The age of our students varies between 18 to 28, both young men and young women. The maximum number we can teach is 30 and our present accommodation can only cater for 12 men and 12 women at the most. Other students attend daily from outside.
At present we have 12 full time employees. Two of our staff are themselves blind and one is partially blind. We have accommodation for boys and girls and in this way we care for our students in a family atmosphere and provide for all their needs and comforts, including meals.
All training and facilities are offered freely to the students, and we are completely dependent on voluntary donations in order to continue the wonderful work of Bartimaeus. Anything you donate towards our expenses, no matter how small is very welcome and sincerely appreciated.
Volunteering at Bartimaeus
We welcome Untrained volunteers and with a little basic training they can help with the listed activities below
- Counselling
- Personality development
- Reading study materials to the students.
- Talks on different topics useful for everyday life.
- People to fix plumping, electric, cleaning, other repairs.
- Scribes to write exam for any student if required.
- To teach some musical instrument and singing
- Assist in stock checking
- As sighted guide if required to go to minto (local) hospital.
- To make tactiles of various objects.
- Tips in daily living skills eg mobility :- lead by elbow, do NOT PUSH the blind person IN FRONT OF YOU
- Hardware or software professionals to assist technically and to install softwares like virus AVG / disckeeper lite/ regmechanic / jaws / WIFI setup, operating system, formatting.
We need volunteers to make an on going commitment. Coming once or twice and disappearing, does not help, as the time training them, outweighs their contribution. Helping with a specific job on the list, where you can interact with our students, is more useful in the long run.
