I received my issue of RNIB's Insight Magazine in the post recently, and have scanned my illustration and small article to share with my readers. The article says:
Kimberley Burrows from Manchester is Insight's new Young Illustrator. Above is her winning take on the theme "Next Steps".
As winner of our competition for young illustrators, Kimberley will be producing artwork for Insight throughout 2014. Kimberley was born with sight problems due to being born prematurely. "I mainly suffered from cataracts that weren't noticed until I was 4 years old. Now I have plastic lenses and only a bit of sight in one eye," she says.
"My illustration was created using pencil crayons and fine liner, and represents me and my next steps. That includes training for a guide dog, completing my braille course and mobility training with a long cane," Kimberley explains.
As a member of the new young people's campaign group ENVISION Kimberley has also added "a picture of the Houses of Parliament to signify more campaigning in the future."
I was also approached to help with a short article introducing and explaining the campaigning network of Envision. Some of my quotes were included in the article and can be seen below.
Article reads: A campaign group for blind and partially sighted 18-30 years olds was launched by RNIB in November. The development is being led by the young campaigners themselves to ensure it focuses on their issues. ENVISION, which stands for English Network of Visually Impaired Spokespeople for the Improvement of Obstacles Nationwide, first met in June to discuss the aims of the group.
The goal is Envision is "to make a difference across England for other young sight impaired people, tackling a whole range of difficulties that are encountered on a daily basis," said 25-year-old Envision member Kimberley Burrows.
"We launched our English network along with the first campaign that we will be focusing on - the difficulties surrounding leisure and retail. There are a wide variety of issues to address in our campaign, and me and the rest of Envision are excited and enthusiastic to get started. Envision have a series of teleconferences lined up in the near future, to begin discussions detailing the next steps that we want to take with our campaign," she added.
You can hear the views of the young campaigners in a YouTube video produced by RNIB at http://bit.ly/1bJPeWK
For more information about the network please e-mail campaigns@rnib.org.uk or call 020 7391 2123
I had lots of fun designing my illustration and writing my short article for Insight magazine, and I am extremely thrilled with the final results! You can learn more about RNIB's Insight magazine by clicking here, view exclusive online content here and can subscribe here (braille, audio e-mail and print formats are all available).
Insight's new issue is out now!