Key Points

• Indonesia is home to over 3.75 million people affected with blindness
• The disabled people have immense difficulty in navigating through their daily activities. There is no way to help or monitor them in case of an emergency.
• Gablind is an innovative device consisting of glasses and shoes connected to a mobile application used to provide navigation to visually impaired people
• Gablind can be used by families, foundation or school for the blind, to monitor their position in real-time. 
• Gablind empowers people to become more independent and opens doors to many more opportunities for them.
• Each device costs the team RM 835 ($187) to build.
• Donations to this campaign will help the team build Gablind (software and hardware), train, and give 40 Gablind products to the visually impaired beneficiaries residing under the Yaketunis Foundation. 

Campaign Story

Eyes are one of the greatest blessings that we enjoy every day without even realising their sheer importance in our lives. To realize the importance of our eyes, just close them for a moment and observe how you feel! Life comes to a standstill. 

According to Pertuni (a visually impaired organization) data, we observe that Indonesia is home to over 3.75 million people affected with blindness. In the region of Yogyakarta alone, there are over 2200 reported visually impaired people. These are registered numbers, but the teams on the ground expect the actual numbers to be much higher as not all those that are suffering have the adequate means to register in facilities or get help.  There are 3 main problems for the visually impaired that the teams observe:1. The people have immense difficulty in navigating through their daily activities especially as the infrastructure around them is not tailored to cater for the visually impaired.  2. Even if people are familiar with certain environments, they cannot venture out to other places if the need arises because of the many restrictions.  3. There is no safe method to monitor and aid visually impaired people in case of emergencies or need. They are mostly left to fend for themselves. 

The Solution

To tackle this situation, 3 alumni from AMIKOM University in Yogyakarta came up with a unique solution. Gablind (Glasses for The Blind) was born as the brainchild of these Indonesian students.  Gablind is an innovative device consisting of glasses and shoes connected to a mobile application used to provide navigation to visually impaired people. Gablind can be used by families, foundation or school for the blind, to monitor their position in real-time.

These special glasses are designed for the visually impaired to increase their navigational abilities. The visually impaired can wear Gablind to go to their schools and find the nearest bank or hospital, and they can even read normal text using OCR technology that is embedded in the glasses. Gablind is equipped with various features that are integrated with Google Maps and other tools to make it easier for the blind when on the move. The accompanying application has 3 main features:

1. It is used to determine the location of the glasses by using an alarm sound.

2. G-Location is used to determine the location of users (with visual impairments) by providing information on street names, city and other details etc. In case of an emergency, the user can press a button on their glasses, and the location information will appear on the monitoring application that is with their family or caretakers.

3. G-Walk is used to provide the fastest route for the visually impaired to reach their desired destination.  

Gablind empowers people to become more independent and opens doors to many more opportunities for them. Each device costs the team RM 835 ($187) to build. This price can be brought down when there is mass production of the product.   

The Gablind team has identified Yaketunis Fondation (Yayasan Kesejahteraan Tunanetra Islam) in Yogyakarta which they have been involved with for 4 years. The foundation is home to more than 100 visually impaired people.     Donations to this campaign will help the team build Gablind (software and hardware), train, and give 40 Gablind products to the visually impaired beneficiaries residing under the Yaketunis Foundation.   

Start off with just RM100 and empower our brothers and sisters in Indonesia with the gift of sight.   

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever relieves a Muslim of a burden from the burdens of the world, Allah will relieve him of a burden from the burdens on the Day of Judgement. [Timirdhi]