Christine Coco Roschaert

To get where she is today, Christine 'Coco' Roschaert, who was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome when she was a young Deaf girl, attended a Deaf school in her native Canada for 16 years, then found herself at Gallaudet University. In denial for a long time, she finally came to terms with her vision loss at the age of 23 by learning Braille, tactile with sign language, and by mastering cane skills. In 2007, Coco started volunteering with Deaf programs for two years in Nigeria. Being near-blind by then, Coco chased her dreams and travelled solo around the globe in 2010 to thirteen countries (mostly in Asia). Having seen so many injustices around the world for Deafblind people, Coco decided she had to do something and wake up the world. Today, she's an international advocate for Deafblind Human Rights and the founder and Director of Nepal Deafblind Project. She resides in Kathmandu, Nepal.