In 2002 Virginia Pérez won first prize in a competition in Spain for her innovative invention. A doll - called Brailin – which helps the blind to learn Braille. Today it is very popular in Spain and the whole European community where they have developed her brand. Even the Chinese are manufacturing them.
Since winning the ONCE prize Virginia hadn’t received any kind of subsidy. Now at last her good work has been vindicated and recognised in her home country of Argentina. The Provincial state of Corrientes has promised – after her trip to Ethiopia – to finance the mass production of the doll. We are very pleased at this news (and to be part of it all). Sometimes the world is a nice place and globalisation is a good thing...
In a month’s time Virginia will arrive in Ethiopa having been invited to spend two months to show her Brailin doll and demonstrate its uses and to reinforce the theory that toys can help the children to integrate socially.
"Brailin" is much more than a doll. It is an educational tool that helps both sighted and blind children to learn Braille and was devised and created by the teacher born in Buenos Aires, but now living in Corrientes.
Virginia herself confirmed that “the Secretary General of the Government, Carlos Vignolo, has promised to finance the mass production in the Province of Corrientes”.
"It has already been discussed and we will start work on the project when I return from Africa. I have so many expectations in this experience I’m about to undertake in Ethiopa and when I return we are going to work fully on the production together with the Provincial Government”, she assured Radio 92.9 Corrientes.
“It’s an educational resource which I devised to help teachers and to make learning fun for the children”, the teacher told Radio La Red. The original doll was made of cardboard and had some buttons in its tummy in the shape of the Braille alphabet. In 2002 she entered it in a competition in Spain and won. This enabled her to perfect the design.
“Brailin now has six pieces in its chest, small balls which represent the dots which form Braille letters and they stick out of the doll’s chest, forming different combinations”, she explained.
This doll is all the rage is Spain and can also be found in Chile, Brazil and Uruguay and will soon be crossing the borders into Ethiopia. Brailin became the worlds first initiative for learning Braille through play.
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