The Peace Gong, the children’s newspaper launched its Braille Edition in Hindi and English on June 6, 2015 in association with Arushi. The Peace Gong reaches out to children across the length and breadth of the country and even abroad. It is a media literacy initiative of the Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Foundation, New Delhi.
It is to provide a platform to children with disability that we launched The Braille Edition. The articles and reports in the newspaper were written by children with visual impairment from across Madhya Pradesh. This first issue focuses on “Environment”. A major highlight of this Braille Edition is many general students learnt Braille and worked with visually challenged young reporters. Like the print edition, the Braille Edition will also be quarterly.
The launch of the Braille edition started with a welcome address by the Editor of The Peace Gong, Kanupriya Gupta. It comprised of an introduction of the newspaper and the journey of making the Braille edition. The chief guests were Dr. Vipin Vyas, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies in Bhopal University and Smt. Kanchan Jain, Principal Secretary of Parliamentary Affairs. After that the newspaper was launched. The vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. Rohit Trivedi , Asst. Professor, Sarojini Naidu Govt. Girls P.G. College.
The Peace Gong is not just a platform for children to write on social concerns but is also a vehicle to promote child participation for community building. It is also a vehicle to promote child rights issues. Student reporters of many of our Bureaus in different are taking up causes of their community. These include working with children with disability, creating awareness on the concerns of child labour & child trafficking, environment etc. It is a platform to develop the communication skills of children, develop their abilities to initiate their own programmes and projects, develop leadership and team building abilities.