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.

Library of Congress Kenya Field Director Shares Computer Donation & Enthusiasm

[photo caption:Thika Primary School for the Blind students receive computer donation delivered by Library of Congress Field Director Pamela Howard Reguindin]

On October 25th, we were privileged to receive high profile guests from the Library of Congress, based in the US Embassy – Kenya. Field Director Pamela Howard Reguindin, accompanied by her driver Meshack, were first welcomed in the main office and given a brief historical background of the Thika Primary School for the Blind and its achievements.

The Field Director kindly delivered computer donations, which were happily received by the students, teachers, support staff and inABLE team. She also gave a “NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL POSTER” sponsored by the US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, bearing the image of President Abraham Lincoln.

Our guests were then taken to the school library where they found the students reading books of their choice. The Field Director was impressed to see the number of books available and the neatness of the library. While moving exploring the library, the Director's attention was caught by a popular children’s chapter book. In fact she suggested that the book be read to the students. The title of the book “The Hostile Hospital” is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by author Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Illustrator Brett Helquist.

After the library tour, we moved to the main computer lab where students demonstrated their skills by adding more weight to the school motto which says "DISABILITY IS NOT INABILITY”. The Field Director commended the inABLE team for their good work connecting the students to the world of technology.

Early Computer Experience Benefits Class 3 & 4

Joy and happiness were in full expression when class 3 and 4 learned that they would finally be invited into the computer program. Initially, the computer instructors were concerned that young boys and girls, who still require a lot of time to play, would struggle to settled down and listen. This was not the case, as these young learners proved to be very obedient and quick learners, though some did require extra attention when to learning the keyboard because their fingers were stiff and not steady.

Stepping into an unknown environment is always a bit unnerving; however in this case we truly experienced the fun of teaching young blind children. These fearless young learners have progressed splendidly and are already very good at typing. We are now working towards merging them into the main stream, simply because they are extremely good.

This early exposure to technology is a bridge that will help these students access more learning and sharing opportunities available online and in emerging mobile technology.

French Embassy – Nairobi Team Sees Computer Skills of Visually Challenged Close-up

A team of visitors from the French Embassy – Nairobi were ushered into the Thika Primary School for the Blind computer lab several weeks ago by the school head teacher Mr. Jotham Makokha. The purpose of their visit was to learn how computers were being used to empower the blind and visually impaired students.

After a brief introduction of who we are ( inABLE) followed by a review of assistive technology in IT, a tech-savvy student named Mwololo took center stage to show our French Embassy - Nairobi visitors how visually challenged students navigate the web. Being an avid football fan, Mwololo decided to visit his favorite website - supersport.com – to find updates he missed during the holiday. After learning about his favorite teams, Mwololo moved on to the daily nation news, where he again sought out the sports segment, giving a clear indication of his sincere love for football.

As it turns out, football was a shared interest. Mwololo and the visitors had an enjoyable exchange. Everyone was impressed by Mwololo’s computer skills.

InAble thanks our French Embassy – Nairobi guests Faloince Lacroix, Cland Frey, Julian Mark, and Phantus Wambiya – Kenyan for their interest in how blind and visually challenged learners are using computers to develop their IT, current events, and social networking skills.

Students Impress International Guest

Photo: Marcus Berggren and Thika School for the Blind student John Brown]

One September 20th, the Thika School for the Blind received Marcus Berggren, a visitor from Sweden on a mission to see different projects that assist the less fortunate people in East African Countries. Our guest was impressed to see our computer lab, since he is also a visually impaired.

After learning about the computer program, Marcus then toured classes to meet the students and socialize. It was a very enjoyable moment when the students chatted with him in Swahili. Marcus also studies Swahili so that he can better communicate with the citizens of Swahili speaking countries.

Finally, Marcus was introduced to student John Brown, who brought him to the library and explained what takes place in there. When asked by our guest if John had ever faced challenges because his skin was very fair (John has albinism), he recalled an experience when some people shouted “eih eih ! ona mzungu” which translates to "look at that white boy". Quite wise and compassionate for his age, John quickly clarified that those people had never seen an albino and so to them any albino is a mzungu (white person). John understood that it was a learning moment.

The confidence and abilities that all the students demonstrated to our international guest made a lasting impression.

Teaching the Teachers by Peter Okeyo

inABLE had the opportunity to open it’s gates to Thika High School for the Blind Teachers to come and acquire the basic computer skills. The classes were conducted in two sessions, morning session and mid morning session. Because there were three visually impaired learners, it was decided to offer two sessions rather than just one (understandably, visually impaired learners may require more time). The same curriculum was taught at each session, so that any learner could attend both sessions.

With two computer labs at Thika School for the Blind, the sighted teachers were instructed in the main computer lab, while the visually impaired teachers could learn at their own pace in computer lab two.

The “teach the teacher” learning day was a success with everyone learning new computer skills.

Visiting Day Delight

Observing the smiles and joy of amazed parents as they watch their children use computers with confidence and enthusiasm is one of my favorite activities during visitor days. While these parents anticipated learning improvements they never dared to dream their child would be computer literate.

On one particular visiting day a class three student brought his guest to the computer lab to show her how he could navigate through the keyboard and open a program (math flash). It was clear that his parent was totally impressed with what her child had accomplished. After praising inABLE for this learning opportunity, she said “nobody could have ever thought that a blind person could use computer.” She was then concerned about what would happen when her child went to high school. She feared that these computer skills would be lost if children didn’t continue advancing.

Fortunately, inABLE is working hard to install computer labs to the Thika High School for the Blind and also in Kibos Kisumu. Thanks to the many generous donors, sponsors, and supporters who support inABLE’s mission to open computer labs for the blind at all of the blind primary and secondary schools in Africa.

by Carolyn Ngondi

Computer Lab donations are being accepted at http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/computer-labs-for-the-blind/?rf=ggWidget

Blind Students Excel

Data tabulation is one of those learning modules that induce stress for almost every learner, regardless if one is sighted or visually impaired. The perception is that it is difficult. Generally speaking, most people fear mathematics with or without Microsoft Excel.

A friend cautioned me that teaching Excel to blind students can be very difficult. He recommended that I research practical examples to explain different terminologies used in Excel spreadsheets, which of course I did.

When the time came for me to execute my Excel data tabulation lesson, I began with Class 7. As anticipated, the students groaned with dismay stating that the lesson was too difficult. I was reminded of a Swahili proverb that goes kutangulia sio kufika, meaning “starting a journey does not guarantee finishing”.

Thankfully, my concerns were needless. All of the Class 7 students - who happen to be totally blind - were exceptionally good in Excel.

What I learned is that it is good to embrace a learning challenge and never under estimate any student.

Thank you for your continued support for inABLE and our beneficiaries.

Summer Update

With a plane ticket sponsored by our partner KLM, inABLE was able to send our Executive Director Irene Mbari-Kirika to attend two key events held in Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya.

5th Africa Forum Blindness Conference – July 2011

inABLE was invited as a presenter at Africa Forum Blindness Conference, the largest-ever gathering in the blindness field. The Forum attracted nearly 400 delegates from 43 countries from Africa and various parts of the world. A number of significant milestones for African people who are visually impaired were announced or launched at this international conference on blindness in Africa.

During the event, inABLE and Georgia Tech co-presented a paper on the Mwangaza Project, which is our collaborative research project identifying ways to use technology to teach math and science to blind students. The presentation was very well received and generated livley discussion about obstacles in this area and options for overcoming them. As one attendee said, “This is a real issue for students across Africa is that this program needs to be expanded to reach more of them.”

inABLE Stakeholder Meeting in Nairobi – 22nd of June

This meeting was held at the Thika Primary School for the Blind, where inABLE’s inaugural computer lab is located. The purpose of the event was to engage policy makers in the educational sector to seek ways to expand our model for computer education for the blind. Among those attending organizations were the Teachers Service Commission (which trains, deploys and pays teachers), the Ministry of Education, the Kenya Institute of Special Education (which trains all special needs instructors), the Kenya Society for the Blind, the African Braille Center and the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment. Also attending were representatives from four schools for the blind (St Lucy’s Primary, St Lucy’s Secondary, Thika Primary and Thika Secondary) and the Salvation Army which is their founding body.

Some of the accomplishments were:

· Recognition of our model by the attending stakeholder institutions as a proven and viable strategy that can be applied to other schools.

· Commitment to participation in making the program a success. For example, the Teachers Service Commission agreed to assign a full time instructor to our computer program at Thika Primary.

· Discussions with the Kenya Institute of Special Education about adopting our instructor training program into their trainer curriculum. KISE has identified an initial group that they want to be the first KISE-trained computer instructors for the blind.

New Dawn for Students at Thika School for the Blind

Experiencing computer-based learning is an adventure. Try to remember the first time you saw and test a computer. For many of us, it has been many years or even decades since embracing computers at work and even at home. Now imagine what it would be like if you never knew about or ever touched a computer.

Thankfully the students at Thika School for the Blind Students now have access to computers with assistive technology and are quickly becoming computer savvy. Enclosed below is a recent experience that demonstrates how computers are expanding our students’ learning and lifestyle horizon. It is really a new dawn for our kids at the Thika School for the Blind.

Cyber-Cafe Outing

During a recent holiday break class eight, low vision student Joel Wandai visited a cyber cafe to surf the web and check email. After coming across unfamiliar computer software, he called for assistance and explained that he required a talking computer with Mozilla software- http://www.mozilla.org/ . This was the first time the cyber-café attendant had ever heard of a talking computer, and Joel was able to confidently explain how a talking computer worked.

The cyber-café attendant was very impressed with Joel’s computer knowledge and inquired into his school. The Mozilla program was successfully uploaded and Joel proceeded to access the internet, just like all the other cyber-café customers.

How the Internet Helps Blind Students Become Good Writers

It was exactly 7:00 am when I began the class with seven E students, who were eagerly waiting for the lesson to begin. I had prepared my lesson and one of the areas I wanted to cover was email, so that those students’ who are not able to compose, read and confirm the sent mails could have a chance to review it before we moved onto another topic.

The lesson began quite well and the students seemed to be excited, though some issues began to arise that the students seemed hesitant to share. What could this be?

In the meantime, my attention was briefly taken outside of class. When I returned to the class, I found the students crowding at Faith Kavutha’s workstation. I rushed over to see what was taking place, because we are dealing with kids who are very inquisitive. What I found was that the students had found a new resource that helped them email at http://www.mwanasimba.online.fr/E_methali_01.htm.

This link was the solution to Faith and friends’ problem writing good email composition and isha. The site contains over 90 proverbs translated into Swahili (Methali) that students are expected to include in their insha and composition in order to pass the class.

When I asked Faith - who is a totally blind student - how she found this valuable learning website. She boldly told me that just Googled to seek this information. Of course she did, with computer assistive technology she has the same online research abilities as the rest of the connected world..

The lesson I learned out of this scenario was that, 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. Thanks to Access Kenya Group and other stakeholders.

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!