At the end of February David Pointon spent another week in the Gambia and during that time organised a two-day workshop for the teachers at the school for the blind. He was assisted by Chrissy Ritchie who works in North Yorkshire as a rehabilitation officer for the visually impaired.

Chrissy and David (right) and the teachers had a lot of fun with the various teaching aids which have been donated to the school. These included toys for the nursery children, and teaching aids which can be used in maths and science lessons.

While David gave training sessions on how to use the computer driven Braille embosser Chrissy showed the teachers how they could increase the mobility of their students.

Meanwhile Chrissy’s mother, Heather, was having an exciting time as she carried out a feasibility study on the usefulness of rag rug making among the blind and deaf in the Gambia. After a workshop with those in the adult literacy class at the Govi Resource Centre Heather exclaimed: “I am amazed – I never thought I could teach those who were deaf and could not speak English”.

She ran two workshops, one at the Resource Centre and the other with a class of deaf children at St John’s school. Both were a great success. A visit to the home of Govi national committee member, Musa Mbye, helped her to see how a large household of both blind and sighted women and children might be able to use rag rug making as a cottage industry.

At the end of his week there David and Lamin Saidy, representing the Friends of Govi (UK) had a very positive and productive meeting with the Govi national committee. During the meeting the national committee had the opportunity to outline their holistic approach to the problem of blindness in the Gambia and to understand how the Friends of Govi (UK) could continue to assist specifically with the school.

It was agreed that this year the Friends of Govi (UK) would particularly aim at raising funds for the feeding programme at the school. Many of the children come from very poor homes and have been encouraged to attend through the sensitisation programme run by the blind members of the national committee. The national committee believe it is essential to provide both breakfast and dinner at the school as many of the children will not have eaten anything before they arrive.

The cost of feeding one child at the school each day is just 40-50p! That adds up to about £6,000 a year for the whole feeding programme.

After being involved in some fund raising back in Wensleydale David is about to return to the Gambia. This time he is travelling with Ken Nicholas, another of the Dales Team which delivered the minibuses to the school in December.

Ken (pictured at the wheel of the minibus, right) is an ambulance technician based in Wensleydale and while at the school will be running a driving course for the minibus drivers.

Pip Land
February 2007

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