Sebastián Filoramo is a 12-year-old Venezuelan boy, he is blind and wants, among other things, to fill out the Qatar 2022 World Cup album. The little boy still lacks many stickers to complete it, but his task is very arduous because he must adapt the album to braille , the tactile reading and writing system for blind people created by Frenchman Louis Braille in the 19th century.
Claim. “Blind people also want to fill their Panini album for the Qatar 2022 World Cup,” said the boy in conversation with El Pitazo. In the video that he uploaded on Instagram and on TikTok, Sebastián explained how he managed to fill the album using braille.
His father, his teacher and him. On the one hand, they used transparent adhesive paper to write the names and numbers of the players in braille on the stickers. On the other hand, in the frames of the album where the figurines go, they put lines of liquid silicone in relief so that Filoramo could guide himself with his hands when gluing them.
With the Perkins machine (special for writing in braille), he marked the cards. Everything very carefully so as not to break them. “I still have many cards to score. Imagine, a box contains 104 envelopes, multiply it by five, it would be 520. And I have to adapt one by one to Braille”, expressed Sebastián.
Your favorite chrome. With the Argentina shirt on, the boy said that the sticker he was most excited to get was Lionel Messi’s. Among other requests to improve the quality of life of people with visual disabilities, Sebastián suggested to Panini that for the next World Cup he make an album adapted to braille that can be purchased in all countries.
More goals. “Fulfill your dreams. Notice that I ride a bicycle and I don’t see; I ride a skateboard and I don’t see; I’m learning skateboarding and I don’t see. And just as I can do all those things, so can you. The limits do not exist, the limits are set by you”, reflected Filoramo.
Sebastián has total visual disability, the product of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) that was triggered when he was born, at seven months of gestation. The child knows no limits. His big goal for 2023 is to be the first blind man to complete 100 kilometers on a bicycle.
Other of his dreams have to do with becoming a software developer to create programs that can help visually impaired people.
