Rotary Club of Buckhead Georgia Advances Computer Learning for the Blind

[Photo caption: inABLE Executive Director Irene Mbari-Kirika speaks to members and guests of the Rotary Club of Buckhead at a February 7th event.]

On Tuesday, the Rotary Club of Buckhead Georgia invited inABLE Executive Director Irene Mbari-Kirika to speak about the impact of their donation of 10 flat-panel computers for low vision and special needs students at Thika Primary School for the Blind in Kenya. Irene expressed the gratitude of the students, teachers and community, reported computer learning advancements, and encouraged the Rotary Club to continue supporting inABLE's Computer Labs for the Blind educational programs in Africa.

This well-attended luncheon, held at the Cherokee Town & Country Club in Atlanta, also featured guest speaker Jay E. Hakes, director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. Additional photos are posted in photo gallery.

Celebrating Reading at Kairi Library

[Photo caption: inABLE Founder Irene Mbari-Kirika congratulates all the students who participated in the December Reading Contest]

Over 150 children took part in a reading drive organized by ORS librarian, Naomi Macharia. Participating students borrowed books and wrote short essay summarizing what they learned. The top readers in three age groups were announced at a fun celebration event sponsored by inABLE on December 21st.

On the day of the reading-drive celebration, Naomi arrived at the library at 8am. She was greeted by 40 students eagerly awaiting the 9 am event. inABLE founder Irene Mbari-Kirika along with Executive Committee members Kirika Mugo and Chris Macharia traveled from the USA to personally recognize all the students who participated in the December Reading Contest. There were also many supporters in the crowd, including library committee, teachers and inABLE Kenya team representatives.

Appropriately, inABLE’s librarian Naomi Macharia gave the welcome speech. She explained that this reading drive exceeded expectations. On the very first reading-drive day 105 students arrived, when she thought maybe 40 might. And the high attendance numbers were steady for the entire 30 days. She recalled: "I had to come up with creative ways to motivate the students to keep them excited throughout the entire reading contest".

The librarian asked students about what they read, assisted them in selecting books, and also read to young kindergarten and first grade students. She was always amazed to find students waited patiently until she opened the Kairi ORS library each day.

During the reading celebration event, students performed poetry, songs and dance. Every student also received a small participation gift. In addition, the top 10 students were rewarded with additional gifts to support their education. Everyone enjoyed refreshments, balloons and stickers. The Reading Drive celebration was a huge success, with calls for an annual event. To make this happen, everyone cheered…“Read, Read, Read!

To say the least, the USA inABLE team were overjoyed by the response to this motivational reading program and departed Kairi village thinking – "how we can further develop the Our Reading Spaces program".

inABLE Celebrates 2011 Achievements

As we start this New Year, we are full of confidence and gratefulness for all of the accomplishments we attained - together - in 2011. Because there are so many individual actions and contributions that power inABLE, we want to countdown some of the amazing achievements over the last year.

A Dream Come True - Years of planning, praying, and outreach finally paid off. Bidco Ltd’s shipping container gift united students and the Kairi community in one central Our Reading Spaces Program library.

Kenya National Library Recognizes ORS Kairi Library - Impressed with the new library and large book inventory to be catalogued, the visiting (KNLS) Head Librarian offered to send two of her KNLS staff members to assist Librarian Naomi in the process.

Internet Helps Blind Students Become Good Writers- Given time and access our blind or visually impaired students can fully utilize the vast educational tools available on the internet, just like their sighted peers.

Blind Students Excel - All of the Class 7 students - who happen to be totally blind - were exceptionally good in Excel data tabulation.

Teaching the Teachers -inABLE helped Thika High School for the Blind teachers acquire new computer skills.

Library of Congress Kenya Shares Computer Donation - Students welcome computer donation and recognition delivered by Library of Congress Field Director Pamela Howard Reguindin.

First Class of Computer Savvy inABLE Students Graduate - inABLE extends our sincere gratitude and utmost respect to our first class of graduates. We are immensely proud of all of you (Mwololo, Brown, Kiongo, Ndinda, Michere) and hold you all dearly in our hearts.

Kairi Reading Contest

Since the Kairi reading contest for primary school students began on November 28th, enthusiasm has literally filled the Kairi Our Reading Spaces shipping container library where more than 80 students come to read daily.

What a wonderful sight to see so many children sitting quietly absorbed in a book. Clearly this reading competition, which runs through December 21st, has proven to be a huge success. We hope that all of these eager learners continue to advance their reading abilities and share the joy, knowledge, and inspirational stories that they read with others today and throughout their lives.

We encourage everyone to share the joy of reading with family and friends.

inABLE's Visually-Impaired IT Guru Wows Cisco Networking AcademyOfficials

[Photo caption: inABLE IT instructor Christine Kayathi demonstrates her computer capabilities to Cisco Networking Academy Officials]

Christine Kayathi, inABLE's visually impaired IT guru and a blind teacher at the Thika School for the Blind, met with Cisco Networking Academy officials on December 1st. Cisco's Kenya Manager Hital along with Den Sullivan, Head of Architectures and Enterprise Emerging Markets based in the United Arab Emirates, were immediately astonished by how fast Christine multitasked using different tabs in the browser.

Since our Cisco Academy guests had never seen a blind person maneuver a computer with such efficiency, they were quite impressed and promised to help Christine enhance her computer skills so that she can further advance technology at the Thika School for the Blind. Hital and Den also gave thumbs up to inABLE for their good work.

Here is another great story that shows that being blind does not mean having no vision. We are very proud of our adept computer instructor for setting a good example and shattering notions that blindness impedes computer proficiency.

inABLE Sponsors First Graduation Farewell Party

On Nov 10th inABLE sponsored a historical farewell party for the 2011 Thika Primary School for the Blind graduation candidates. The celebration was kicked off with a video conference in the main computer lab with inABLE Founder and Executive Director Irene Mbari-Kirika. All the candidates had a chance to say something about the computer program, the knowledge they acquired, and how it will help them in the future. Irene gave a motivational speech encouraging the students to embrace technology whenever they get an opportunity.

Teacher Mr. Ezekiel Musau traced the roots of the inABLE computer program for those who did not know how it came about. He explained how he and students met Irene at a nearby library and out of that chance meeting the idea of a computer lab for the blind sparked Irene’s imagination and fueled a new passion that became a reality the summer of 2009. Musau went on to say that this candidates’ farewell celebration would have been more special if Irene was able to be here in person to congratulate each departing student. In closing, he encouraged the students to say in touch using their email addresses.

The Thika Primary School for the Blind Principal Mr. Jotham Makokha described this occasion as very unique and historic. Typically, once a student has completed KCPE they leave the school without any gathering. He expressed appreciation to the inABLE team for their kind gesture and noted that this is the very first farewell party for the candidates and he hopes that it becomes a new tradition.

In his closing remarks, the Principal Makokha called to mind parallels with Martin Luther King’s vision,“ “Martin Luther King had a dream for America and the dream was that one day America would be led by a black man, and people laughed. They said it would never happen in America. But the dream came true when Barack Obama became the President. Irene also had a dream and the dream was that one day blind people will have access to computer technology and that dream too became a reality when the inABLE computer lab for the blind was opened at the Thika Primary School for the Blind and now her inspiration is spreading to blind schools all around Kenya and in other parts of Africa”.

First Class of Computer Savvy inABLE Students Graduate

inABLE extends our sincere gratitude and utmost respect to our first class of graduates. As the Chinese proverb goes “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”. In September 2009, inABLE established its first computer program at the Thika Primary School for the Blind. These capable students came prepared to our computer lab ready to learn, despite the numerous start-up challenges we faced.

Today, we wish each of our graduates the best in life as you step forward to pursue your dreams. You are the best example inABLE can show in terms of achievement. Since the computer labs for the blind journey, which is now expanding across Kenya and soon parts of Africa, began with you.

We are immensely proud of all of you (Mwololo, Brown, Kiongo, Ndinda, Michere) and hold you all dearly in our hearts. You leave here today web developers and computer skilled individuals. You have aptly demonstrated that being blind does not mean lack of vision.

We will greatly miss you.