In the ancient Japanese martial art of jujutsu, the attacker never uses full force; rather, he or she exploits the other party’s weakness.

The attacker must understand the opponent, calculate their force, appreciate the strengths, and notice the shortcomings.

Only then can each move be focused and truly effective.

Seeing Hands is a social start-up, supported and incubated by UNDP in Armenia, that incorporates the philosophy of jujutsu into its guiding principles.

The project trains and employs the visually impaired as massage therapists. Having operated for over a year, Seeing Hands recently recouped its initial investment.

Mariam Dilbandyan manages the project in her hometown of Yerevan. Although visually impaired, she found that many of these people truly had perceptive hands.

In fact, many countries, she notes, employ blind people in the healthcare sector, where privacy and focus are required.

Mariam thinks that we tend to stereotype people with disabilities, especially in a conservative society like Armenia, where any deviation is perceived as a threat to the “normal” way of life. People with disabilities thus have limited access to labor markets and social life.

According to Mariam:

“People with disabilities should be hired not for compassionate reasons, but because they are the best candidates! I select and train blind people in massage techniques, and it’s really creating a strong competition the market.”

The traditional support methods for people with disabilities include welfare benefits provided by the government, reserved job posts with public administration bodies, and tax reductions for employers. Seeing Hands is turning this paradigm on its head by actually empowering the people they work with, and who in turn, work for them.

Incubating the idea

The idea originally began circulating in 2013, when Mariam had an opportunity to spend some time with the visually impaired and learn about their insights and problems.

Together with friend Liana Avetyan, they came up with a project to submit to Kolba Labs, a Yerevan-based innovation hub.

They wanted to create a massage salon employing only the blind and visually impaired. Their idea ended up winning the competition.

The funding that came with the Kolba prize helped them launch the project. They found a cozy location, purchased the necessary equipment, hosted an initiation event, and advertised their services

The project has been a success with people lining up to try out the blind masseurs.

The initiative has been also promoted beyond Armenia. HuRiLab even awarded Seeing Hands for being the best “out-of-the-box” adaptation implemented by UNDP in our region.

Today, Mariam is focused on increasing the range of services offered, bringing more and more new customers in for a massage, and turning what was once perceived as a weakness into an undeniable strength.