Blind woman has vision of future

The class monitor pours tea for his classmate at Kiki's Kindergarten for the Blind in Baishung.

To help others in her position, she opened her massage center in the city's Tengyeling Street, offering customers professional massage and coffee.

However, due to Kyila's strong interest in English, Tenberken sent her to study at the Totnes European School, where she was the only blind student in her class. During her year in London, she said teachers treated her no differently from her classmates.

"Many times they forgot I was blind, and sometimes I was asked to read from the blackboard," she said. "Of course, I would make big mistakes, it made all my classmates laugh. It was fun."

Calling discovered

After returning to Tibet, she worked as manager of Braille Without Borders for two years before heading out to Germany, Canada, and the United States in 2008 to study early intervention education.

It was at this time she says she discovered her calling: Running a kindergarten for visually impaired children.

"It's important that children with partial sight are given the same opportunities as their peers," Kyila said. "It's key that we empower them, to prevent them from being socially disabled."