Wednesday 30th August – Part 1

Still at Jinja, we spent the morning visiting a school and a blind child (at home as school was on holiday other than for those doing revision for public exams). At Budondo school we met an itinerant teacher, who covers both visual and hearing impairment needs. This teacher was responsible for 24 schools in the district, as well as teaching science at Budondo. Not all the schools had children with special needs, but this was still a workload which was too much for one man on a bicycle. He was only able to visit each school about once a month. The teachers are not paid extra for this, although it did make them more likely to gain promotion – this teacher had become the Deputy Head of Budondo, which of course added to his workload! Apart from this, his main concern was the limited number of Braille books available.

We visited Susan, a 9 year old girl who had suffered cerebral malaria when she was about 3. This had left her totally blind. She also had trouble with her legs, but it seemed that this might have been because her mother had assumed that she shouldn’t walk, as she seemed to be improving her mobility since going to school. She looked about six. Her mother was homeless, and she moved around before the school had found her. She sang a number of gospel songs, and had a beautiful voice. It was hard to be optimistic about her future, as she lacked the supportive family which Dennis had.