Wacih, a world-class braille writer
By Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, 4/5/2005
Being born blind has posed no barrier to Wacih Kurnaesih, 50, in building her career as a world-class writer.
The teacher at Wyata Guna state special school (SLB) for the blind in Bandung discovered the joys of story writing as a hobby, eventually earning her first
place for the Onkyo Braille Essay Award II in 2004.
Through her essay, entitled Achieving success with Braille, Wacih was awarded a US$1,000 prize by the sponsors, Onkyo Co. Ltd., The Braille Mainichi newspaper,
and the World Blind Union -Asia Pacific.
"What I wrote was just my personal experience in using braille to make my life easier and to channel my interests," she said humbly.
She claimed to have finished the 900-word essay in only seven hours. "As it was already in my head, I just turned it into words. I started at 11 a.m. and
finished it at 6 p.m., including breaks for two meals and prayers," she told The Jakarta Post.
As suggested by the title, Wacih wished to convey that the pursuit of progress in life was no different for the blind, despite their disability.
The writing and printing system invented by blind French educator Louis Braille in 1824 has been the key to her success. This Indonesian language high
School teacher has not been chasing money or wealth, however. With her success, she wants to reduce her dependence on other people and express her ideas and feelings
in braille so as to be a benefit to society.
Wacih was introduced to braille at the age of seven, when she was sent from her birthplace in Sumedang to the Wyata Guna Blind Institution in Bandung,
About 50 kilometers away. Born on April 30, 1954, she mastered braille quickly, mainly due to curiosity.
"My mom used to tell me bedtime stories, which I liked a lot. So I wanted to read the tales in braille," said Wacih, who enjoys reading a wide variety
Of different novels and was thus inspired to write stories of her own.
Braille also made Wacih more confident as a child when playing with her sighted friends during holidays in Sumedang. She would make braille "banknotes"
with ordinary paper, which her peers liked very much. "They might have found it strange playing with 'money' with embossed dots," recalled the mother of
two sighted children, Tommy Rinaldi, 23, and Sendy Nugraha, 21.
As a teenager, she started writing short stories and poems in braille. The themes were still woven around the tales her mother used to tell, about lucky
children and wealthy, happy kings as well as moral fables.
Later, she became fond of reading romantic novels of such famous writers of the 1970s like Marga T and Ashadi Siregar, which at that time she enjoyed through
the assistance of volunteers who visited the Wyata Guna school to read to her.
It was also braille that led to Wacih's success in her entrance test to enroll at the state teacher training school (SPG) in Bandung, which receives mostly
sighted students.
But her most memorable moment was not her admission to SPG.
Rather, it was when, in her second year of study around 1972, one of her stories was published in the Suara Karya daily newspaper.
Wacih said that her first published story, titled "Gara-gara rambut palsu" (All because of a wig), was introduced as the work of a blind student. It was
about a girl wearing a wig that gets caught on something as she was taking a walk with her boyfriend, making her feel embarrassed.
"I got Rp 3,000 for my first story, which was quite a lot, because the school fees then were only Rp 100 a month. I spent the remaining money on treating
my friends," she reminisces with a smile.
Her writing skills enabled her to take her study further after graduating, enrolling at the Indonesian Department of Bandung's pedagogic institute (now
the Indonesian Pedagogic University).
Publication of her work boosted her confidence in associating with the 50 other students in her department.
Students there acknowledged her flair for literature by asking her to help them write poetry for their boyfriends. "As a reward, they used to treat me
To a bowl of meatballs," she said.
Feeling that her writing had to be read by sighted people, she began learning how to use a manual typewriter. Her ability to type eventually caused her
poems and stories to appear more frequently in the department's magazine.
In 1980, Wacih married her Wyata Guna boyfriend, Didi Tarsidi, who was also born blind. She uses braille for facilitating household routines. "I use braille
paper for kitchen spices to avoid mistakes, and also for documentation of diplomas, awards and civil servant promotion decrees so that I don't have to
ask anybody to find them whenever I need them," she said.
In a writing contest for special school principals throughout Indonesia in 1983, she won a prize for "Pahlawan 5K" (5K Heroes), 3,000 copies of which were
published by Tirta Kencana.
The book again earned her first place in an SLB teachers' competition organized by the Directorate of Extraordinary Education and published by Balai Pustaka
in 1986. Her other book, "Menuju Kemenangan" (Towards Victory), a story set against the background of Bandung's revolutionary period, can be found in school
libraries all over Indonesia.
The printing of her books produced royalties, which she used to buy a computer for her husband, Didi, who is now chairman of the Indonesian Association
for the Blind (Pertuni).
The computer is equipped with the Job Access with Speech (JAWS) program, which can read words on the monitor and assisting the blind to become computer-
and Internet-literate. A graduate of the pedagogic institute's English department, Didi also speaks English fluently.
"He's a great motivator. He translated my essays that won prizes in contests, and typed them up using the computer," Wacih said proudly.
With her two children now college students, a supportive spouse, a house and a car, she has almost everything. However, Wacih still has another dream.
"I would like to see all blind children get the same formal education as that given provided for the sighted -- as I did -- and be allowed to fill jobs
according to their abilities, instead of just working as masseurs as most of them have done so far," she added.
Being born blind has posed no barrier to Wacih Kurnaesih, 50, in building her career as a world-class writer.
The teacher at Wyata Guna state special school (SLB) for the blind in Bandung discovered the joys of story writing as a hobby, eventually earning her first
place for the Onkyo Braille Essay Award II in 2004.
Through her essay, entitled Achieving success with Braille, Wacih was awarded a US$1,000 prize by the sponsors, Onkyo Co. Ltd., The Braille Mainichi newspaper,
and the World Blind Union -Asia Pacific.
"What I wrote was just my personal experience in using braille to make my life easier and to channel my interests," she said humbly.
She claimed to have finished the 900-word essay in only seven hours. "As it was already in my head, I just turned it into words. I started at 11 a.m. and
finished it at 6 p.m., including breaks for two meals and prayers," she told The Jakarta Post.
As suggested by the title, Wacih wished to convey that the pursuit of progress in life was no different for the blind, despite their disability.
The writing and printing system invented by blind French educator Louis Braille in 1824 has been the key to her success. This Indonesian language high
School teacher has not been chasing money or wealth, however. With her success, she wants to reduce her dependence on other people and express her ideas and feelings
in braille so as to be a benefit to society.
Wacih was introduced to braille at the age of seven, when she was sent from her birthplace in Sumedang to the Wyata Guna Blind Institution in Bandung,
About 50 kilometers away. Born on April 30, 1954, she mastered braille quickly, mainly due to curiosity.
"My mom used to tell me bedtime stories, which I liked a lot. So I wanted to read the tales in braille," said Wacih, who enjoys reading a wide variety
Of different novels and was thus inspired to write stories of her own.
Braille also made Wacih more confident as a child when playing with her sighted friends during holidays in Sumedang. She would make braille "banknotes"
with ordinary paper, which her peers liked very much. "They might have found it strange playing with 'money' with embossed dots," recalled the mother of
two sighted children, Tommy Rinaldi, 23, and Sendy Nugraha, 21.
As a teenager, she started writing short stories and poems in braille. The themes were still woven around the tales her mother used to tell, about lucky
children and wealthy, happy kings as well as moral fables.
Later, she became fond of reading romantic novels of such famous writers of the 1970s like Marga T and Ashadi Siregar, which at that time she enjoyed through
the assistance of volunteers who visited the Wyata Guna school to read to her.
It was also braille that led to Wacih's success in her entrance test to enroll at the state teacher training school (SPG) in Bandung, which receives mostly
sighted students.
But her most memorable moment was not her admission to SPG.
Rather, it was when, in her second year of study around 1972, one of her stories was published in the Suara Karya daily newspaper.
Wacih said that her first published story, titled "Gara-gara rambut palsu" (All because of a wig), was introduced as the work of a blind student. It was
about a girl wearing a wig that gets caught on something as she was taking a walk with her boyfriend, making her feel embarrassed.
"I got Rp 3,000 for my first story, which was quite a lot, because the school fees then were only Rp 100 a month. I spent the remaining money on treating
my friends," she reminisces with a smile.
Her writing skills enabled her to take her study further after graduating, enrolling at the Indonesian Department of Bandung's pedagogic institute (now
the Indonesian Pedagogic University).
Publication of her work boosted her confidence in associating with the 50 other students in her department.
Students there acknowledged her flair for literature by asking her to help them write poetry for their boyfriends. "As a reward, they used to treat me
To a bowl of meatballs," she said.
Feeling that her writing had to be read by sighted people, she began learning how to use a manual typewriter. Her ability to type eventually caused her
poems and stories to appear more frequently in the department's magazine.
In 1980, Wacih married her Wyata Guna boyfriend, Didi Tarsidi, who was also born blind. She uses braille for facilitating household routines. "I use braille
paper for kitchen spices to avoid mistakes, and also for documentation of diplomas, awards and civil servant promotion decrees so that I don't have to
ask anybody to find them whenever I need them," she said.
In a writing contest for special school principals throughout Indonesia in 1983, she won a prize for "Pahlawan 5K" (5K Heroes), 3,000 copies of which were
published by Tirta Kencana.
The book again earned her first place in an SLB teachers' competition organized by the Directorate of Extraordinary Education and published by Balai Pustaka
in 1986. Her other book, "Menuju Kemenangan" (Towards Victory), a story set against the background of Bandung's revolutionary period, can be found in school
libraries all over Indonesia.
The printing of her books produced royalties, which she used to buy a computer for her husband, Didi, who is now chairman of the Indonesian Association
for the Blind (Pertuni).
The computer is equipped with the Job Access with Speech (JAWS) program, which can read words on the monitor and assisting the blind to become computer-
and Internet-literate. A graduate of the pedagogic institute's English department, Didi also speaks English fluently.
"He's a great motivator. He translated my essays that won prizes in contests, and typed them up using the computer," Wacih said proudly.
With her two children now college students, a supportive spouse, a house and a car, she has almost everything. However, Wacih still has another dream.
"I would like to see all blind children get the same formal education as that given provided for the sighted -- as I did -- and be allowed to fill jobs
according to their abilities, instead of just working as masseurs as most of them have done so far," she added.
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