After navigating an education system in Ethiopia without access to resources for people with blindness, Vancouver resident Abby Griffith wanted change. Not just for herself, but for students worldwide.
Earlier this year, Griffith traveled to Wolaita, Ethiopia, to provide Braille technology for students with blindness. As recipient of the 2022 Holman Prize for Blind Ambition, a prestigious international award, her work did not go unnoticed.
“I felt like I was dreaming,” Griffith recalled upon receiving the news she had won.
Griffith, born in Wolaita, Ethiopia, became blind when she was 8 and subsequently noticed the lack of resources for herself and other students with blindness.
After immigrating to the United States at 14, she continued her education and later graduated from Washington State University Vancouver.
Now 28, Griffith is a community transportation organizer at O.P.A.L. Environmental Justice in Portland and wanted to provide students in Ethiopia with the resources she did not have access to growing up.
“I was very happy, but I was crying,” Griffith said. “In my heart, I want to help these students in Wolaita.”
Awarded by LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco, the Holman Prize is named after James Holman, a 19th-century blind traveler who circumnavigated the globe and wrote about his travels in extensive detail.
In its own words, LightHouse “provides education, training, advocacy, and community for blind individuals in California and around the world.”
The Holman Prize is an annual award given to people who are blind or visually impaired with ambitious plans to revise negative ideas about blindness.
“They (LightHouse) noticed that I wanted to support blind and visually impaired students in Ethiopia who don’t have resources like I do here in the U.S.,” Griffith said.
Griffith, along with her brothers Silas and Abraham, traveled to School for the Blind in Wolaita to deliver embossers, calculators, recorders and Braillers which were provided by Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass.
“You could see the joy in their faces. The kids really gravitated towards the technology,” Silas Griffith said. “Some of them picked up the reading and writing in a matter of minutes.”
“Each one of the students were so thankful and happy,” said Griffith. “They welcomed me.”
As an appreciation for her work, teachers, principals and administrators across various school districts in Ethiopia organized an event for Griffith. From Ligaba Beyene, a program for empowering blind students, she received a gold, yellow and black dress adorned with intricate geometric stitching.
Griffith receives weekly updates from School for the Blind about students’ educational growth. One day, she wants to return to Ethiopia to deliver more technology.
In the future, Griffith hopes to open a nonprofit in Vancouver that supports blind students everywhere.
“My story is to show people around the world that blind people can do things too,” said Griffith. “We can challenge ourselves and we can grow.”
