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St Mary’s Special School in Kawambwa, Zambia and St Odilia School in Mporokoso, Zambia provide for the special needs of students with albinism, blindness and the visually impaired.  These students have visual disorders caused by conditions which diminish sight such as glaucoma, cataracts and injuries. The St Mary’s School in Kawambwa school for the blind has 26 learners who are totally blind and St. Odilia has 9 totally blind learners with a total of 35 totally blind pupils. The blind students, usually have lost their sight before they begin school. These are in addition to a good portion of the school population who have varying degrees of visual impairments.  

They receive medical care from both the local hospital and experts from Kitwe eye clinic (which is a minimum of 18 hours away, depending on road conditions).  There are students who have had cataract surgery and they are able to see and others are given medicines regularly to help with eye conditions. Some of the students manage to obtain medicines but the majority are vulnerable to the extent that they cannot afford the needed medication. It’s only through the generosity of donations from Canada, through Chalice, that they can sometimes buy the medicines required. 

Zambia is a country which struggles with poverty and low employment. Health care may be free but the medicines and costs associated with healing are usually beyond the reach of the rural workers. They subsist on the food they grow and the little they can sell at the market or roadside. Their yearly income can be less than $400 leaving very little for medical needs or eye care.

 Inverness County Cares members did not see any students wearing eye glasses. The reading glasses, handheld magnifiers and sheet magnifiers brought from Canada, were very gratefully accepted and the students with some sight find they make a significant improvement in what they can see. 

For children living with Albinism, their vision is poor and often we saw them making great efforts to see a page of text, by trying to position their eyes very close to the page, to accommodate their vision loss. The majority of them are short-sighted and their vision sometimes deteriorates with age. Therefore, they need both skills in ink and in braille so that when the sight is gone, they can be able to continue with their reading and writing skills. All students with blindness or visual impairment immediately begin learning Braille when they begin school. 

The blind students receive support and companionship by being with other blind students who understand the special needs of each other. They are welcomed and taught by staff members who have received a teaching certificate for instruction of special needs students. Some of those teachers are blind themselves or dealing with visual impairment so therefore very sensitive to the students’ needs and life situation. Those teachers are also great role models for these challenged students. The school is equipped with a limited supply of machines which can translate text books and other learning materials on to Braille and Braillion paper for the benefit of the learning needs of the blind. Sighted students are taught to come to the assistance of the blind and guide them in new and unfamiliar places and situations. Friendships are built. The school grounds are set up so that there are cement borders along the main pathways that help blind students feel their way more easily to their classes and dormitories and dining hall. ICC brought ten white canes to the schools so that students can be taught to use them as a guide to achieve greater independence in their movement. Student-teacher ratios are lower so that they allow for greater help and interaction. Students are taught not to use blindness as an excuse but encouraged to move forward as confident and independent people and good productive citizens of Zambia. Much is being done but great is still the need.

Besides learning to read and write Braille the students have a very important daily living class which prepares them to maneuver the world outside their village and beyond the boundaries of the school. Many of these children were isolated because of the shame of their disability. They come to the schools timid and afraid and leave with self-confidence and the skills to maneuver the challenges of the sighted world.

The school has a large catchment area which caters to the children from across the country but the majority come from the northern provinces of Zambia. The Sisters of the Child Jesus who administer the schools, provide a loving comfortable home for the children. They believe children who are blind deserve an excellent education just like any other children.  These children however often lack the support required for them to excel.  They need support in terms of equipment, medicine, social, physical, emotional and other assistance that can help them succeed in their education. They are so very grateful for the support from Canada. We have been told often of how Chalice and Inverness County Cares has transformed the school since their participation in the Chalice sponsorship program. 

Inverness County Cares (ICC) is a local charitable organization, founded in 2012 and based in Inverness County, NS, Canada. ICC works in partnership with Chalice.ca, a Canadian charity, based in Bedford, Nova Scotia. Chalice provides guidance and assistance to help ICC provide a better life for the children at the Kawambwa schools. The Kawambwa Project involves supporting two schools for albino and visually impaired students, in Northern Zambia. Inverness County Cares always welcomes new members. Individuals who wish to donate, can use the donate button on our website   https://invernesscountycares.com When using E-transfer, please include your mailing address for CRA tax receipts and a thank you message.   E-transfer address:  [email protected] or send a cheque to Inverness County Cares, 5414 Route 19, Judique, NS, Canada, B0E1P0. Taxation receipts provided for USA and Canada.Check out our blog at icczambia.blogspot.com

Alice Freeman donated herWinnie Rankin beautiful hand crafted  ‘Churn Disk’ quilt to Inverness County Cares.  

Winnie and Elaine Rankin took care of the ticket sales and presenting the quilt to the winner Eva MacInnis of Port Hood. 

Inverness County Cares would like to thank community members for their interest in the recent working trip of six of our members. They visited St Mary’s Special School in Kawambwa and St Odilia School in Mporokoso, Zambia. Inverness County Cares still available to present our story to interested groups in Nova Scotia.Community interest has already generated twenty more Chalice sponsorships of children at these sites. These sponsorships particularly assist not only the blind, visually impaired and students with albinism who attend these schools but also their families.

The science of albinism has not reached many of the people living in remote villages. They live with the belief that people with albinism are magical or even possessed. Black magic followers believe that a potion made with body parts of an albino person will bring good fortune and success in business, politics and personal lives. They pay substantial sums of money to purchase these potions. This leads to the kidnapping, death or maiming of persons with albinism, in order to create these potions. The poverty in these areas leads desperate people to participate in the trade of albino body parts.

 In keeping with this lack of accurate information on the genetics of albinism, when a seemingly white child is born to a black family the father becomes suspicious as to the parentage of the child and this leads him to abandon his family. Because of the shame associated with albinism, the child is often hidden away because of the dishonour associated with their skin colour. This leads to a high percentage of single mothers raising albino children.

The families are often subsistence farmers earning a yearly income of $400 Canadian or less. Their survival depends on the success of the crops they grow. The red sandy soil, in the North of Zambia, with very few stones, is favourable for small scale farming. These small farmers can’t afford machinery, so they cultivate their crops and do all digging with just a large, long handled hoe, no shovels, no rakes, just the hoe. We saw old and young, male and female working in the fields with this tool. The magnitude of acres they cultivate with just this tool is remarkable. From their labour comes a variety of tasty and nutritious food to feed their families, such as maize, cassava, peanuts, potatoes and squash.

Recently the threat of drought in Zambia and surrounding countries has led to a very stressful situation. A Chalice sponsorship of one child in the family creates a safety net for the whole family. When a family is sponsored, the parents still work very hard to provide for their family, and the additional funds give them an added measure of food security. Sponsor families form a community of families who meet on a regular basis, learn how to budget and collectively support each other. These are called Family Circles and may contain fifteen to twenty-five parents helping parents. They are stronger as a team.

Inverness County Cares (ICC) is a local charitable organization, founded in 2012 and based in Inverness County, NS, Canada. ICC works in partnership with Chalice.ca, a Canadian charity, based in Bedford, Nova Scotia. Chalice provides guidance and assistance to help ICC provide a better life for the children at the Kawambwa schools. The Kawambwa Project involves supporting two schools for albino and visually impaired students, in Northern Zambia. Inverness County Cares always welcomes new members. Individuals who wish to donate, can use the donate button on our website   https://invernesscountycares.com When using E-transfer, please include your mailing address for CRA tax receipts and a thank you message.   E-transfer address:  [email protected] or send a cheque to Inverness County Cares, 5414 Route 19, Judique, NS, Canada, B0E1P0. Taxation receipts provided for USA and Canada.

 

Inverness County Cares (ICC) trip to Zambia was an eye opener when it comes to how truly fortunate, we are to live in Canada. Yes, we have cold weather and lots of snow but we live in a land of plenty. Our education System is one of the best in the world and our schools have highly qualified staff and many resources available.

The Kawambwa and Mporokoso schools are balancing a fine financial line between, adequate food, maintenance, health care and providing the teachers and students with learning support. Because of the assistance of Chalice, ICC and many Canadian supporters they have surmounted the hurdle of feeding the children, and they now have a tasty, ample and nutritious diet. This is also due to the sisters’ ambitious garden and farm program which produces much of the school’s food. 

Zambia is a product of the English Colonial system and when they left Zambia, part of their legacy was their education system and many of these methods have lingered. While our Canadian system emphasizes innovative, active learning and creative thinking, the Zambian system is still in the listen, repeat, memorize and recall mode but is beginning to move toward a more student-centred approach.

The teachers and administrative staff are committed to their teaching duties and discipline is not an issue. The students know they are fortunate to have a place where they have plenty of food and an opportunity for an education which will give them a chance to achieve a comfortable standard of living in Zambia and a sense of service to their nation.  The Kawambwa Site Schools’ administration understand the value of making resources for the blind and visually impaired students a priority, despite the expensive prices of Brailon and Braille papers.

The teachers are in need of more professional development to build on techniques which will assist children with learning challenges, mainly visual impairment and blindness. The teachers and students have a shortage of teaching and learning materials. The elementary classes have a lack of books to read, and few learning aids such as counters, blocks, alphabet cards, dominoes and games.

Students of all ages benefited from the knowledge and experience of the Canadian teachers. The delicious smells from the home Economics Class attracted the attention of teachers and students alike. Those attending the classes were introduced to new methods of preparing their native food. Several ways of serving squash, potatoes, cake and chicken were taught. When Winnie asked for two chickens for her class, she was provided with two live squawking chickens. They don’t come in a Styrofoam package in Zambia.  

Betty Jane awakened a love of music in many of the students. The heightened senses of the visually impaired drew them to the melodies coming from the music room. With her extensive musical experience, she was able to give students the gift of realizing their musical talent. The musical instruments ICC brought to the schools have awakened a new love of music in students. In the few short weeks, we were in Zambia, Betty Jane had an impromptu band formed by budding musicians.  She also put on her nurse hat and gave advice on how to use the medical supplies brought from Canada and shared medical knowledge with the teachers in the Sickbay.

Charlotte found her niche with the Braille students who enjoyed her presence and the encouragement she gave as they practiced their reading skills. They in turn taught her the very basics of Braille.  She also helped with actual teaching in the Jr High and spent a good deal of her time working individually with students who needed extra support.

 Colleen spent time in the elementary classrooms and worked with teachers to introduce creative ways of using local materials to construct teaching aids to make their classes more student centered and interactive.

Keeping in mind there is a very limited budget for learning materials we tried to come up with free materials in their environment that will act as teaching assists. Bottle caps of all colours are easily found on the school and village grounds. These bottle caps can be used to learn numbers and letters. The top side can have the capital letter printed in Sharpie marker and the inside of the cap have the lowercase letter. The same goes for the numbers.

All the children learn Braille. It is a six-cell code with different placements of these six dots. The bottle caps can be punched from the inside to form representations of the braille letters. The carpentry shop, at our request, made us some math ten frames which are used to help children learn the factors of the number ten and can be used for many other math exercises. The teachers of the blind saw another entirely different way of using them. They used the first six cells of the ten frames to teach braille to the beginners.

Since books are very limited the teachers were taught how to make books that will appeal to the sighted as well as the blind students. They used sandpaper, white glue and manilla paper to create number books.  The sandpaper created a tactile surface for the blind students. Teachers were introduced to the old favourite Canadian school book, ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear’ by Bill Martin Jr. and taught how they can reproduce the idea of this book with the students through patterning.

Changing instructional methods are always a gradual process and the teachers were encouraged to involve the children in their learning by bringing lessons alive with tactile materials, games and creative involvement.

During our visit to Zambia, ICC members worked very hard to begin the task of mending infrastructure to ensure the staff, administration and children have a clean, safe and pleasant place to live and learn.  After experiencing the reality of life at the schools, Inverness County Cares is determined to address as many of the infrastructure needs as possible and make daily life at the schools more comfortable and conducive to the learning needs of the students. By the time we departed for home, we were pleased to see that the work ICC had initiated, concerning the lighting, water, sewer, windows, painting, flooring, was completed.

Inverness County Cares (ICC) is a local charitable organization, founded in 2012 and based in Inverness County, NS, Canada. ICC works in partnership with Chalice.ca, a Canadian charity, based in Bedford, Nova Scotia. Chalice provides guidance and assistance to help ICC provide a better life for the children at the Kawambwa schools. The Kawambwa Project involves supporting two schools for albino and visually impaired students, in Northern Zambia. Inverness County Cares always welcomes new members. Individuals who wish to donate, can use the donate button on our website   https://invernesscountycares.com When using E-transfer, please include your mailing address for CRA tax receipts and a thank you message.   E-transfer address:  [email protected] or send a cheque to Inverness County Cares, 5414 Route 19, Judique, NS, Canada, B0E1P0. Taxation receipts provided for USA and Canada.