Recycling to provide teaching material for Blind children in Tanzania

In 2003 Alan Suttie – now the International Chairman at the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy - was getting set for a fundraising trip to Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.  Just weeks before setting out he was contacted to ask if he would help a neighbours sister in law, Rotarian Faye Cran in Arusha, Tanzania.  For the past 30 years Alan has worked to support the education and training of blind and partially sighted people and now works as Chief Executive of the Fife Society for the Blind.

Following a successful climb to the roof of Africa he met up with Faye Cran and spent time visiting a number of Rotary supported projects including 2 primary schools that were working to integrate blind children.  Rotary had been supporting the schools with equipment, including Braille typewriters.  What the blind children didn’t have were any books in large print, Braille or audio format.  By chance Alan made contact with Patandi College close to Arusha, where qualified teachers were studying to complete a specialist diploma in the education of visually impaired children.

Having seen at first hand the work of Rotary in Tanzania, Alan was pleased to be invited to join the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy in 2005.  When he later took over as International Chairman he was then able to turn his interest in helping blind children in Tanzania in to reality.  Following lengthy discussions with Patandi College a formal letter was received from the Ministry of Education confirming that they would like to work with Rotary to establish a resource centre producing teaching materials.  The plan was to encourage the student teachers to produce master copies of teaching materials and which could later be copied for use in schools when they graduate and move on to teaching.

Audiotapes have long been used to provide talking books and newspapers for blind people in the UK but most services are now moving over to CD and MP3 formats.  Recording equipment, tapes and tape players were being consigned to scrap – and this gave rise to the idea of recycling of equipment for use in Tanzania.  The Kirkcaldy club has been working to particularly collect small ‘walkman’ tape players, which could be used by the blind youngsters.  With support from the Rotary Club of Preston, professional recording and copying equipment was donated to the project when Preston Rotarians were updating equipment at a local talking newspaper.

Towards the end of 2008 the Club started sending out small parcels of specialist equipment using ‘Articles for the Blind’ free post.  The challenge was then to get the heavier items out to Arusha.  Eventually an airfreight company agreed a charitable rate for essential recording and copying equipment and which arrived safely.  This still left some heavy bulk tape copiers!  Contact was then made with the Rotary Club of Ringwood who were loading a container with Rotary Shoe Boxes for shipment to Tanzania.  This consignment arrived in Dar es Salaam mid January and is currently awaiting clearance through customs.

On the 15th January Alan and his wife Janet arrived in Arusha where they spent time working with the college to set up the resource Centre.  Students were taught to prepare and edit teaching material in the local language, Swahili, before recording master tapes and producing copies.  A week later students had the first Swahili audio books ready and 6 blind children from the local primary school came along to give the tapes a thumbs up.  At the opening of the new Resource Facility, the College Principal looked forward to a partnership, which will eventually support the production of large print, Braille and tactile diagrams.

At the request of the Rotary Club of Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria, Alan and Janet also visited Mitindo Primary School.  In its work to distribute mosquito nets to local schools, the Mwanza club stumbled on the school and found 70 albino and 30 blind children living in 2 residential blocks but with no beds.  Immediately resources were provided not only for mosquito nets but beds as well.  Currently children are sleeping 3 to a bed, but the plan is to build them up in to bunk beds.

A majority of the albinos had reduced visual acuity and the Mwanza Club were looking to provide Braille equipment.  Alan Suttie worked with staff from the Mitindo School to set up a vision screening process for the albino children, the results of which will help to determine the best way of helping their education.  Albino children in this part of Tanzania are being killed and their body parts sold for witchcraft, so Mitindo School provides a safe haven for them.  It is likely that most of the children can be helped to use their residual vision and will not need to use Braille.

  For the future, Kirkcaldy is looking to continue its support for Patandi College and now hopes to attract a matching grant to work with Mwanza in supporting the Albino children.

For further information contact:
International@kirkcaldyrotary.org