Tiffany Brar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tiffany Brar

• Tiffany Brar was born premature and lost her eyesight after 6 months due to a careless mistake of a doctor, who had overdosed her with oxygen while treating her prematurity. This led to Terry Syndrome (a disease in which abnormal growth of an eye tissue leads to retinal detachment) in Tiffany, making her blind forever.

• She belongs to an army family. Because of her father’s posting, her schooling took place in different cities like Darjeeling, Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Wellington.

• Her education began in Great Britain and when she returned to India, she attended schools for the blind, integrated schools, and military schools.

• Tiffany was over-protected by her parents and at school was a victim of discrimination. She was asked to sit at the back bench and many times wasn’t allowed to answer the questions. She didn’t receive her Braille books on time and was refused for school picnics and events.

• Most of her childhood was spent in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. At the age of 12 years, Tiffany lost her mother to death. Her mother had a quality to help others, Tiffany picked this generosity from her.

• During her high school, she came in contact with her new domestic helper, Vinita Akka, who stood as a mother to her. Vinita taught Tiffany to do her daily chores herself, like making her bed and dressing her well.

• Even though Tiffany faced discrimination in the school, she topped in her 12th CBSE exam in 2006.

• She became multilingual (Malayalam, English, Tamil, Hindi, Nepali, and Marathi languages) during her childhood years because of being exposed to different regions, where being blind, verbal communication was the only way out for her to live.

• After graduation, Tiffany attended leadership training at Kanthari International, a non-profit organization that works for socially challenged people.

• With Kanthari International Foundation, she worked at ‘Braille Without Borders.’ Tiffany joined there as a telephone operator (receptionist).

• At the age of 18, Tiffany decided to live an independent life and help all blind people to live a life as normal as others. She later associated herself with different organizations and travelled to learn about the challenges faced by blind and underprivileged people. She discovered how uneven roads and other societal infrastructures confined blind people to their houses.

• After learning about the challenges, Tiffany opened a mobile blind school in 2012 to help the blind learn computers and start a living of their own. She was inspired by the idea that ‘If the blind cannot go to school then the school shall go to them,’ when she attended a leadership program at Kanthari International.

• When she changed the life of 3-4 blinds for the better, she decided to spread the message even further, and with the help of a small team, she opened a foundation named, ‘Jyothirgamaya Foundation’ in 2015 in Thiruvananthapuram.

• The idea of Jyothirgamaya was first instilled in Tiffany’s mind by a Tamil Nadu police officer, N. Krishnaswamy. The organization now offers training to blind people in Braille, mobility, basic computer use, and life skills.

• She was praised by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam for empowering visually impaired people around the globe.

  

• In 2016, Tiffany was appointed as the ambassador for the World Wide Fund for Nature’s ‘Earth Hour campaign’ in India.

• In 2018, she was praised by the Government of India for providing materials in the relief camps during the Wayanad flooding.

• She founded a preparatory school and kindergarten for visually impaired children in Thiruvananthapuram in 2019.

• Tiffany is the first Indian to receive the Holman Prize in 2020.

• She has designed the ‘Tiffy template’ (a template that detects Indian currency notes, preventing the blind from fraud). Inventor Paul D’Souza invented the template.

• Tiffany often hosts motivational talks at the TEDx events.

  

• Tiffany was commemorated for her achievements in the television talk show ‘Lal Salam’ as ‘a miraculous woman’ by its host Malayalam Padma Shri actor, Mohanlal. The show was aired on Amrita TV channel.