Relief and Development
This project started in 2010 to seek ways of improving access to education for children we were meeting with vision impairment in Jimma and Bonga. Despite Ethiopia having policies for inclusive education for those with disabilities, there are various cultural and resource reasons that this has been difficult to achieve, especially in village areas. Many village and town school facilities are very basic with 60-100 students in each class, with classrooms often being dirt floors and lacking books and lighting. Additionally, in many rural areas, disabilities are seen as a curse so blind children sit in their huts, invisible and isolated, with little to look forward to in their day or in their future. It doesn’t need to be this way! With an education, these children can participate in life like their peers, enjoy daily interaction with others, and be employed as adults!
A number of our students are now at university, including Yohannes who was the inspiration for this project starting. We had helped Yohannes with housing, medical care and sponsorship, but at that time, no school would accept him. Yohannes asked me year after year to help him get an education, and year after year I tried and failed, leading to this project being set up. This exceptional and inspirational young man is completely blind and didn’t start school until he was 14 years old - he is now studying law and has been pivotal in changing attitudes toward people with blindness in his area.
Over the years this program expanded as many blind children and adults also needed assistance with basic living needs in addition to accessing education. Since it began the program has provided:
- Training of teachers from remote and town schools in teaching blind children, including Braille training. One of these trainings was done in conjunction with a teachers college as we work towards supporting the existing services to better provide for blind students.
- Funding a quarterly ‘bonus payment’ for those teachers who have attended training for each blind student they teach, to encourage the training to be utilised and access to education for blind students in village areas
- Provision of Braille text books, recording devices (so students can tape lessons), Braille slate and stylus and blind walking canes
- Transport and provision of clothing and personal needs for some students accepted into two blind boarding schools (both being several days journey away)
- Support with materials and transport for blind students accepted into college and university
- Small business set-ups for blind adults to provide an alternative to begging. These small businesses have included clothes washing, rope making and chicken breeding projects
- Rent, housing and living support for blind parents with children
- Financially supporting and/or advocating for eye clinics to Bonga
- Providing glasses/spectacles and magnifying glasses to children with low vision
- Providing Braille classes to blind adults to increase social interaction and inclusion, hope and purpose
