Determination in a class three pupil

Irene Thambi is a class 3 student at Thika Primary School for the Blind. Irene has a problem with her hands whereby the left hand cannot completely do anything. Then the right hand is not firm to hold something, so Irene writes Braille using her tongue that means she holds the stylus with the right hand and presses using the tongue so that it becomes firm. In case she wants to locate the hole where she has reached writing she would locate it using the lips since she has no sense of touch.

I asked a teacher about Irene and I was told that she is very clever and intelligent and through my own observations I found out that its true because, when I assign her to do math flash she always has an answer to the sum but the problem is she cant be able to put that answer down using the keyboard

The challenge we have with Irene is that the right hand that she uses is not stable such that if she wants to do math flash (a computer game) she cannot be able to locate the numbers properly but keeps on pressing any key from one end of the keyboard to the other. We are still trying to help her master the keys every time she comes to the computer lab

Irene has a good memory and is very kin to listen to instructions. She is determined to succeed in the computer program despite her disability.

A determined student - John Brown

John Brown is the seventh born in a family of nine siblings and the fifth among boys.
His parents are farmers based in Western Kenya. At the tender age of 9 years in 2005, while in class 2, Brown was introduced to computers by his aunt. She taught him how to play games such as Bow Man and this sparked a sensation and enthusiasm like no other. With such a game, he was able to develop eye-hand co-ordination since the game involves pointing and clicking.

In 2009 at Thika Primary School for the Blind, Brown was excited when he knew he could continue learning about computers as inABLE started operating in the school from July 2009.As time progressed, so did his passion. With the introduction to Gmail, Brown was always keen to reply mails sent to him as much as possible. Whenever visitors came to the school he was quick to ask for their email addresses so that they can interact more frequently.

As the computer concepts seemed complex to some of his classmates, he viewed them as an extension of himself and this made it easy for him to understand. Always asking questions in class and willing to do research on the web on class work material, has moved Brown a notch higher than the rest. This is because he was the number One student end of year 2010 in the entire class 7 with 377 marks out of 500.

After learning some fundamental concepts in HTML, Brown approached me with a sketch of a web page that he would like to create. From the sketch, he intended to include a picture of himself and some personal details. I could see a clear sense of the end product as it displayed images and text at various portions. He tried as much as possible not to cluster the details on one page. He later put pen to paper and developed the sketch in HTML.

Currently, he is working on improving his HTML skills in order to develop products that will suite the market. He is one of the students who participated in designing their school website this month.

He is a self-driven, inquisitive, focused and persistent student aiming high for the skies. His dream is to become a pilot when he grows up.

Kenya National Library (KNLS) Head Librarian Visits ORS Kairi Library

The Kairi Village Our Reading Spaces (ORS) program invited Kenya National Library Services to visit their new library to evaluate the program and recommend required processes or support that the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) could offer.

On arrival, Naomi the Our Reading Spaces librarian was found arranging and sorting books to keep the track/record of the books. Miriam, the KNLS Head Librarian, was amazed to see the large quantity of books available on the shelves, and stunned by the many more books still in boxes. She was also extremely impressed by the QUALITY of the books, some of which she does not have at the Thika library, especially the young children’s books.

At on point, Miriam pleaded with Naomi to allow her to borrow some books for children at her library (Robotic books). Apparently, most KNLS book donations are outdated and that is what the KNLS Librarian expected to find. She was very happy with the selection of the books and looks forward to borrowing some books for Kenya National Library – Thika some day soon.

Recognizing that it may take our Librarian Naomi a year to finish processing the books, the visiting Librarian offered to send two of her KNLS staff members to assist in the process. Extra support will shorten the set up time so that we can now allow the community to borrow books.

While the Kenya National Library Services was happy the ORS progress, we continue to fundraiser for the purchase of an additional containers so that we can create a larger reading space.

by Peter Okeyo

Our Reading Spaces - Kairi Village

Finally Home

The bright red shipping container pictured above is now the HOME of the Our Reading Spaces Program at the Thika Primary School for the Blind and Kairi village in Kenya. Over 22,000 books were donated by individual donors in the USA and Books for Africa. Caring Georgia volunteers assembled to sort and pack these books for children and families in far away Kenya.

While it is easy today to celebrate the Library, just a few short years ago the fate of these donated books was in limbo because a Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta to Nairobi was suddenly cancelled. This meant that inABLE had to seek out an alternative shipping plan. We did not know quite where to start, but we had to do something, as the schools and entire community was already waiting for the shipment books. Thankfully, the Safaricom Foundation came through, in a big way, with a grant to ship the books.

Now this new Our Reading Spaces Program has many wonderful stories to share. It’s a welcome place for the children who arrive at the library daily, the senior citizens (70 years old) in the community who stop by often to pick up a book or learn to read. Even college students, who cannot afford to buy new text books, visit to access computer books that are required for their classes.

Now that our Kairi library is finally home and open, we can take time to a moment to recognize the impact of our collective hard work and efforts as we continue to expand the Our Reading Spaces Program.

A Dream Come True

I remember watching the container get offloaded, dangling in the air above the many boxes of books below that were waiting to call it home.

The community (young and old) watched patiently as this big red box was slowly lowered and placed on the donated land. Congratulatory words of kindness and appreciation were shouted as the joyful excitement rippled across the waiting community. A new local library was now a dream come true!

Years of planning, praying, and outreach had finally paid off. Bidco Ltd’s amazing shipping container gift helped us to scrap the less desirable plan B, which required distributing the books to all the eight schools instead of uniting the students and community in one central place. Not to mention that the local schools option was very limiting because of restricted hours of operation. There was also the risk of extra work for teachers, who are already overwhelmed with their daily tasks.

A central location to plant our container library was the ideal solution, on a piece of land donated by the community. A new learning destination to visit after school and weekends, for anyone and everyone, was not a reality. A reading haven for the entire community had bloomed in vibrant red. A place for teachers to borrow books for their classes was now nearby. A place for children to read and enjoy storybooks of their choice was here.

A TEAM EFFORT

A small act of kindness has a huge impact on an entire village.

Two days before the books arrived at Mombasa port, inABLE hosted Dialogue in the Dark Business Leadership workshops in Nairobi, Kenya. After the workshops, I met the Managing Director of Bidco LTD. Mr. Vimal Shah. As soon as we were introduced my heart and mind began racing, “maybe he has a shipping container to house the many books en-route”.

Keep in mind that while Mr. Shah had heard of me from a mutual friend, he had only just met me in person. To my surprise, our biggest challenge was eliminated with an out stretched hand and a generous response “give me a call on Monday and we can plan the delivery of a container for your library”. I was shaking with excitement and joy. Did he really say YES? I could not wait to tell the whole world. Unbelievable!!!!

Miracles do happen!

As the year comes to the end, What were your achievements and challenge

inABLE has had a very successful year. inABLE

• Continued to train more students on our Computer Program at Thika Primary School for the Blind
• Opened the Our Reading Spaces Library in Kairi Village, Kenya.
• Hosted Dialogue in the Dark in Kenya for the first time (was an amazing and out of the box experience for the participants)
• Most of all our new partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) that will help take our program to the next level by using technology to teach Math and sciences in schools for the blind.

Funding still remains a challenge and we hope to see some changes in the new year. There is hope and very positive energy from the students on our program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVHhq3IBWhM