A woman records an audio book in the recording studio. JP/Kurniawan Hari

The library was quiet one cloudy morning. Two long cabinets full of cassettes and CDs were on the left- and right-hand sides. Shelves of Braille books were in another room. A big table was in the center of the library with some CD players.

Endah, the librarian, looked busy. With extra patience, she helped Irfan, a seventh grader, learn how to operate a digital talking book. Irfan, who has been blind since birth, looked nervous as his fingers moved slowly pushed the buttons. Every time his fingers found the right button, a smile flashed across his face.

"Now, you try to play the cassette by yourself," Endah said.

"You must push the button until it makes a *beep' sound."

Irfan, who came to the library with his father, dutifully followed the instruction. He moved his fingers to play the digital talking book, an important source of knowledge for him and many other blind people.

This is not an ordinary library. This is a library for the blind. The library is run by Yayasan Mitra Netra, a nonprofit foundation in Pondok Labu, South Jakarta.

Foundation spokesperson Aria Indrawati said the foundation had been working since 1991 to empower and improve the skills of blind people through training. Aria, who has a sight disorder, said the foundation also produced Braille and digital talking books for the blind.

"The foundation was established to help blind people in training and education. We hope they will learn skills and get a job," Aria said

Aria said the social foundation has been very helpful to the blind, which was why she had joined the organization in 1999.

The library is open to the public from Tuesday through Friday. The library closes operations on Monday because usually the librarians clean up the room and check the catalogue.

"There are not many visitors on Monday, so we decided to spend the day on maintenance. Usually, Friday is the most crowded day. Students come here after school and borrow books," Endah added.

As a nonprofit foundation, Mitra Netra relies on domestic and foreign donors to maintain its services. The foundation also relies on volunteers who help produce books. Some volunteers re-type books letter by letter to be transposed into Braille alphabets using special word-processing software. The book will then be printed or embossed into Braille books.

One page of an ordinary book will be transposed into three pages in Braille, meaning any book embossed in Braille will be bigger and thicker than the ordinary one.

In another room, a woman read out a storybook to be recorded onto CDs or digital talking books.

So far, the foundation has "translated" into Braille thousands of books including bestselling novels such as the Harry Potter and Twilight series. Several biographies of Indonesian intellectuals and national leaders have also been translated into digital talking books.

Aside from producing books, the foundation also provides training for blind people.

Hakim, who lost his sight after a traffic accident two years ago, said although he needs to take angkot (public transport) to the foundation, he was happy to be at Mitra Netra and had learned how to read Braille.

"My mentor is friendly!" he said enthusiastically.

After showing their skills in reading Braille, usually blind people will study how to use the typewriter before continuing to learn how to operate a computer.

The services of the foundation, however, are facing hard challenges as one main foreign donor plans to stop its assistance next year and will allocate its financial aid to African countries. To anticipate this, the foundation has distributed piggybanks to several schools in the capital in the hope that the students will donate their money to help the blind.

The public can also help by taking the role as volunteers and work for this humanitarian mission.

So far, blind people are often associated with masseurs. Through the training, the foundation tries to provide skills to the blind people so that they will get more chances to get proper jobs.

Despite these setbacks, the social foundation continues to serve the blind. To maintain the services, Aria and her team are campaigning to encourage the public to donate money to help improve the sustainability of the services.

"We hope to be able to maintain this service so that the blind will have equal chances."

To learn more about the foundation, go to www.mitranetra.or.id

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