Wednesday 15th November Part 2

Our last visit was to the Christian Association of the Blind (CAB). There are five different associations in Liberia, which causes problems – two are officially recognised by the African Union of the Blind. CAB generally seemed pretty on the ball, and it was clear that Dr Kota, the Director, would be an excellent advocate and a good community based rehabilitation partner. The only wrinkle is that CAB are building their own School for the Blind in Monrovia with money from the World Bank. I asked why they didn’t just support the existing school, and it was clear that there was a situation rather like that with Sierra Leone Association for the Blind (SLAB) in Sierra Leone, where they would prefer to manage schools themselves, even if they say they support the Ministry of Education.

After a quick clean up at the hotel, we left for the airport and I had an uneventful trip home via Senegal and Brussels.