Some pics from the Blind School

This child is being trained on a Braille typewriter in the school's resource room.

The school has been quite successful in finding donors in the West to help with equipment, but it's a struggle to solve accommodation problems. Here's a view of the boys' dorm, which Logen hopes to extend and refurbish soon.

Successful Blind School outreach – report

Logen Kumwenda, the teacher-in-charge at the Ekwendeni Blind School, has reported on the outreach undertaken by the school in August 2010. They visited over nine zones in the Mzimba North educational district, finding 100 children with problems. 34 were visually impaired, 34 had hearing impairement, 16 had learning difficulties, nine had physical disabilities, two were deaf and blind, and five were multi-handicapped.

Of the 34 visually impaired, 27 had low vision, and seven were totally blind. The totally blind children were admitted to the school, while the impaired ones were sent to Mzuzu Central Eye Clinic for further assessment. Tests are free here, but they charge for treatment and/or glasses, and the prices are far too high for most families to afford. Since then, we've received a list of the children's prescriptions, so we'll be hunting through the donated second-hand glasses for good matches, and they'll despatched to Ekwendeni in one of the conatiners regularly sent by The Raven Trust.

This is a long processs, so you can see why we're keen to find and train staff to maintain permanent clinics.