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"I like reading the best," says eight-year-old Babul Miah, as he runs his fingers across a page of Braille. He is a happy and outgoing boy with lots of friends, and it’s clear how much he enjoys school. It is difficult to believe that two years ago his future prospects looked unlikely to amount to more than begging on the street.

Babul has been blind since birth. He lives in Purba Syed Nagar village in the Narshingdi District of Bangladesh with his widowed mother Jarina Akhter, and his two brothers and two sisters. Babul’s father died last year and now his mother and 16-year-old brother are the only breadwinners in the family.

Despite living only five minutes away from Purba Sayed Nagar Primary School, he did not attend school like the other children in his village because the head-teacher, Md. Shah Alam, did not feel that the school could manage to teach a child who was blind.

When Babul was identified by Sightsavers partner ABC (Assistance for Blind Children), they arranged for Md. Shah Alam and another teacher, Mrs Helena Begum (Babul’s teacher), to be sent on a training course to learn how to teach children with visual impairments. ABC also did a lot of work to challenge the perceptions of the community, Babul’s family, friends and neighbours about blindness, and explain how a child who is blind or visually impaired can learn alongside sighted children if given the right support.

This is the principle of inclusive education, and Sightsavers believes that it allows children to learn from an early age that they can participate equally in society.

The ABC team also did a lot of work to make the school more accessible to people who are visually impaired, such as using contrasting colour tape on walls. The school now proudly displays a sign on the wall, saying that it accepts blind and visually impaired students.

Babul is now enrolled in school, and doing well in his studies. He has received Braille books, a tailor board and a writing frame to allow him to write. He loves music and is a really good singer.

“Shaikat is my best friend he helps me prepare my schoolbag and we walk to school together,” says Babul. “But I can walk by myself with my white cane.”