Tag: Volunteers Week

Sight loss charity celebrates a remarkable braille volunteer

Sehar Mashiyat, a volunteer braille tutor with leading sight loss charity RNIB, has an impressive story to tell, this Volunteers Week [1st – 7th June].

Sehar volunteers as RNIB Scotland’s braille tutor, teaching the skill of reading and using braille- a system in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips.

Sehar’s extraordinary journey of empathy and connection with visually impaired individuals began with her late father, Captain Mashiyat Ur Rehman Malik. The captain, who was blind and lost his hands while serving in the Pakistan Army, fostered a deep bond with his daughter and nurtured in her a profound appreciation for the visually impaired community.

Rooted in her family’s commitment to making a difference, Sehar wholeheartedly embraced the cause during her educational pursuits.

Alongside her family members, she volunteered at “Al-Faisal Markaz Nabina,” an institution founded by her late father in Faisalabad, Pakistan—a renowned industrial city in Punjab.

Capt. Malik, who also maintained a close connection with RNIB, served as a distinguished expert in special education and rehabilitation for the visually impaired community.

Inspired by her father’s passion, Sehar joined Bahira Special School in Islamabad as a braille teacher, dedicating a decade of her life to supporting and empowering visually impaired students.

In her relentless pursuit of creating positive change, Sehar recently relocated to Edinburgh. Armed with her profound knowledge and experience in the field, she wasted no time in seeking out organisations that shared her mission.

Sehar’s search led her straight to RNIB, a charity whose work she was already well acquainted with. Eager to make a difference, she reached out to RNIB expressing her enthusiasm to volunteer.

Sehar’s dedication to the teaching of braille, stems not only from her childhood experiences of regularly visiting her father’s institution but also from her academic accomplishments—a Master’s in Special Education, specialising in visually impaired and braille studies.

She firmly believes in the power of volunteering and its profound impact on both the volunteer and the community they serve. Her advocacy extends beyond her own efforts,

“I have a very strong belief in volunteering work,” Sehar says. “I have always encouraged my friends, family, and others to volunteer and serve. I feel proud to be a volunteer with RNIB Scotland.”

* For those interested in learning braille or giving time to volunteer, contact RNIB at ScotlandCommunityConnection@rnib.org.uk. 

Miles Briggs: Volunteering at the heart of the community

Miles Briggs MSP has praised the invaluable role of volunteers during a visit to BHF Scotland’s shop in Dalry Road, Edinburgh – seeing at first-hand how their efforts help raise vital funds for the charity’s lifesaving research into heart and circulatory diseases.

The visit took place ahead of Volunteers’ Week, marking the annual contribution of volunteers up and down the country. In Scotland, around 14,000 volunteers regularly give up their time to help the BHF in its 75 Scottish shops.

During the visit, Miles heard more about the role of volunteers taking in donations from the local community and the incredible benefits of shopping preloved, preventing good quality items from going to landfill, creating a sustainable, circular economy and saving money, while also funding the BHF’s lifesaving research.

In a year, the BHF saves around 71,000 tonnes of goods going to waste and through the reuse and recycling of donated items, helps prevent 135,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere. The charity will also sell over half a million pieces of living room furniture and 14,000 tonnes of preloved clothes from its stores.

Heart disease is a major cause of ill health in Scotland and the BHF is currently funding around £60 million worth of projects in ten Scottish universities. This work is only made possible thanks to the huge generosity of the Scottish public.

Lothian MSP, Miles Briggs, said: “Volunteers are essential for the running of British Heart Foundation, raising money for such a worthwhile cause and reusing and recycling household goods, which is also beneficial for the environment.

“People donating their time his hugely valuable for the British Heart Foundation and I would encourage anyone who has been considering volunteering to offer their services.

“British Heart Foundation continue to pioneers lifesaving research, which would not be possible without the thousands of volunteers who give up their time.”

Kym Kestell, BHF Scotland’s Policy and Public Affairs Coordinator, said: “It was great to welcome Miles to our Dalry Road shop in Edinburgh and talk about the crucial support of our fantastic volunteers here and right across Scotland. 

“It goes without saying that volunteers are the lifeblood of our shops. Every hour donated makes a difference. It helps us raise money to power lifesaving science to save and improve more lives. Across Scotland around 700,000 people are living with heart and circulatory diseases. Your gift of time can help us, help them.  

“For more than 60 years, your support has helped the BHF turn research that once seemed like ‘science fiction’ into reality and we need your help now more than ever.”

Volunteers Week: “I volunteer to make a difference” – Richard, RNIB Scotland

To mark Volunteers Week this week [June 1-7], Richard Asher from Leith has spoken about being a volunteer for sight loss charity RNIB Scotland.

Richard (29) is part of the Edinburgh-based charity’s Technology for Life team, advising blind and partially sighted people on the accessibility features now built-in to new technology that can help maximise their independence.

Such features include software that reads text as speech, enlarges the size of fonts, and adjusts background colour contrast.

“In my volunteering role, I help customers with technical devices like iPads or mobiles,” explains Richard, who studied IT at Edinburgh College. “They bring these into RNIB Scotland and can either have issues with them and need something looked into, such as their settings, or I can teach them how to first use their devices.

“I volunteer because I want to make a difference in people’s lives. It is vital to make that difference, just seeing someone happy at the end of it and seeing that they are confidently using their devices. A person can get the most out of their time with me in learning. Or, if they come up with a problem, that problem is sorted for them.

“Some people have been born without sight, and they might have an older device or might not have had a device before. I train them with the accessibility features and how they can use the phone.

“Other people may have lost their sight in later life, having known how to use a phone. And now they’re saying, ‘Oh my goodness, what will I do? I depend on this phone; I use this every day.’ So, we focus on training them to use their phone differently.

“I’m a firm believer that anyone can use a phone. It’s just about finding the right way. There is sight loss in my own family, so this volunteer role is important to me, and that’s what we focus on here – making them independent in using these devices.

“The important thing for me is someone’s walking out, feeling they have gained from it, and they’re happy.”

Players of the People’s Postcode Lottery support the running of the RNIB Connect groups, which provide a supportive online space where people with sight loss can use technology to connect and share experiences.

* www.rnib.org.uk/scotland