Packaging fireworks is one way some unsighted people earn their living in India.  But only a few are able to get a job with a manufacturer.

A popular means of self-employment is selling lottery tickets on the streets.  Thievery from these blind people is not uncommon.

Mission To The Blind teaches blind women how to make envelopes which they sell to doctors and small businesses that want to help.

A water tank to sell drinking water to passers is another way MTB helps some people become self-employed.

A bathroom scale for convenience in the USA is for this blind man in India his only means of income. Sitting street side with his weigh scale, he usually earns enough to eat each day.  The  cost of scales given by MTB - about $15.

With no eyesight, but only the touch of her sensitive fingers, this woman weaves a new bottom into the chair.  It is called 'caning' and is another way blind people with this skill earn their meager income. 

How a blind lady runs her household.

Malliga is a totally blind married lady from the southern part of India.  Her husband is a full time Christian worker.  She contracted small pox at age three, followed by brain fever and blindness.  She was able to enter school for blind people when six.

Many years later in 1997, Malliga met David, also blind but with perception of light.  It was 'love at first sight' she laughs.  In 2002 they married and Malliga assumed her role of independent housewife.

At 4:30 a.m. Malliga and David begin their day with a prayer time together.  Then she does the cooking, gives him his breakfast and packs his lunch.  It will be late at night when David returns from his work, but there is much to be done before then. In order to fill her stove with kerosene, she uses a funnel, then carefully feels for any spilled fuel.  To boil milk, Malliga has in mind the time it usually takes.  And, she listens for the hissing sound to begin.

Rice, their staple food, may have stones or grain worms in it.  She feels through it to remove any worms, then puts it in water so she can remove the stones that will sink to the bottom.  Being blind doesn't prevent her from preparing chopped onions and

carrots, fish and meat, egg omelettes, fried rice, and Indian dishes of sambar, biriyani, idli, puri and chappati, a very tasty wafer-like bread.

Can she go to the market to shop?  Yes, she can!  She sweeps and mops her floors daily.  She 'collects' her water by going to the common well and bringing it home in a water pot as was done in Jesus' time.  She washes clothes in a tub or beside a stream, hangs them to dry, then irons them.  About the only thing she needs someone to do for her is get down the cobwebs occasionally, because she doesn't know where they are.

The world around Malliga is dark to her sightless eyes.  But inside is the light of Christ.  The walls of her kitchen are sparse.  The walls of her heart glow with the truths she gathers each afternoon from her Braille copy of God's Word.

Christian Kindness from Mission To The Blind

White canes are given to help blind people feel their way along, and also warn sighted people of the person's blindness.

Medical camps are held for poor blind people who have no means for even minimal medical care.  Volunteer doctors and nurses are recruited by MTB missionaries.   

Resale articles are bought at wholesale and given to some of the needy blind people for resale on the streets.

MTB ministry is "front line" as they share the love of Christ.

Resident Training for young women and men provides loving Christian environment with teaching of God's Word and also vocational instruction.

Blind people that would other-wise exist only in poverty and hopeless-ness, the world's discards, become self-sufficient examples of Christ's amazing grace! 

Blind girls at Bible Retreat

Some go....some give....everyone has a part!

Braille Bible portions and scripture studies are translated into many of the 19 official languages of India.  A British company gave the printing press and is paying the cost of production for at least 2 years. 

Correspondence courses are offered at no charge.  Personal letters are encouraged and answered.

Bible study in Braille

One missionary average monthly salary and support is about $125.

School uniforms and tuition for the children of blind staff families are given once a year at a cost of about $250 per family.

Sighted child, blind parents

At the end of 2009 Mission To The Blind was staffed by 90 full-time missionaries operating in 13 states from 30 mission stations of 13 different language groups.  By 2010 there were more blind people in India than in any other country -- more than 20 million and many more only partially sighted.  Each has a soul; most have no hope.

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