Colorado TVIs in West Africa
By Nancy Knight
Editor's Note: TVIs Cheryl
Leidich and Nancy Knight traveled with Operation Classroom
in June to Sierra Leone, West
Africa, visiting schools for the
blind and meeting professionals
in the area of blindness. This
article was submitted by Nancy
Knight. We thank both Nancy
and Cheryl for their contributions to these children.
This was our third trip to Sierra
Leone - Salone, as our group
leaders affectionately call it.
This little country, about the size of S. Carolina, is
still recovering from a war during the 1990s that
set the country and their people back about 50
years. In spite of the devastation, the 6 schools
for the blind are enrolling students and trying to
provide some kind of programming.
18
Kids in Salone, as in many African countries, experience loss of vision due to vitamin A deficiency,
River
Blindness, or measles. Families overburdened
with demands of life in remote villages send their
VI kids to live at a school for the blind to learn
Braille and receive educations. The children stay
at their schools from late September to the end of
June. The schools are to receive funding from
the government to cover food and teacher salaries. Funding has been sporadic, however, and
the schools have now gone for months without
any support. Electricity is just a dream for most of
