Today the program included visits to the school clinic, special instruction for the blind pupils, a conversation with Ato Teklu and in the afternoon, house visits to blind pupils.
The nurse is named Sr. Likeyelesh Baisa and has been employed for April 1999. Her education was received in 1971 at the Red Cross in Addis Abeba and later she worked, among other places, for the State Department, 4 years in Germany and in Nairobi. Sr. Likeyelesh is married and has three children, 2 boys and a girl.
Question: Which are the most frequent diseases of the pupils?
Answer: Skin diseases, because the children do not wash frequently and stomach diseases and bowel cramps because of poor hygiene.
The Sister and helpers from the Catholic relief organization, MMM give instructions in hygiene. Staff members of the Public Health Ministry provide AIDS advice and nurses from the nearby Public Health Center provide sexual education.
There is a plan to start a seminar (esp. medical and hygienic advice) for the parents at the school. If a student is chronically, ill, and if requested by them, the Sister also consults with the parents at home.
At regular intervals or on special request if needed, a doctor comes to the clinic to examine the children.
Question: What makes you enjoy your work?
Answer: I care about the children. It is important to inform them and their parents.
Later I visited the Special Instruction for blind pupils in the Resource Center. Hailu, one of the teachers, is a graduate of the school.
Informationen:
- At the present time there are 28 blind students at the school.
- The most frequent causes of their blindness are:
washing with polluted water, wind-borne dust, looking into sun reflections in water, and infections.
As a rule, proper treatment and cure are not possible because of the lack of proper medical instruments and medication.
Most of these children could be treated successfully in Europe!!
In the Special instruction the pupils read books in Braille, learn to write on the Braille typewriter or perform exercises with the fingers for the recognition of objects, patterns etc.
The system of the Integrated Education at the GCS makes it possible for the blind students to learn together with the seeing students in the class.
This unusual method of common learning does not benefit only the eager students - the blind students are chiefly the best in the class - but also furthers the integration of the visually impaired students into the community and provides mutual practice to all students in social conduct.
It is moving to see how considerate both blind and sighted students are of each other and how they talk, play and stand with each other during recesses - and of course also the blind students with each other.
According to Christoffel Blind Mission this project of integrated education at the German Church School in Addis is unique in Ethiopia!
Next the principal took me along to a former residential area in Jan-Meda-Areal where many houses where recently damaged. Fortunately no one was killed as a result.
Since families of 23 students as well as a watchman from GCS were affected by the disaster the school made assistance available.
Only makeshift tents were set up and 700 people were forced to live in the small spaces. They were waiting for State help.
(In July of 2000 I was informed that the permission to rebuild the houses with toilets had been granted. The project however is financed by non-government agencies. The school supports the 23 families in every possible way.)
During lunch I had a conversation with Ato Teklu about the serious help that was needed by the school. More about that later.
In the afternoon, accompanied by a teacher, I visited homes of the blind children.
Our first visit led us to a small house in which four blind boys live. They run the entire household independently.
It is well taken care of and one is surprised to learn that it is inhabited, managed and cared for by four blind youths.
The four youths are:
Asmare, 11. grade (he would like to be an attorney and organist)
Tarekne, 11. grade (he was not present during my visit)
Ashagera, 10. grade (he was not present during my visit)
Maru, 7. grade
The youths all come from distant places and can only visit their families for a week once a year.
The next visit was to the family of Fanta (14 years, 5th grade).
Fanta lives with his mother and three siblings in a cottage of 10 square meters for which they pay 5 Birr (US $0.65) rent each month.
Fanta was already a student at the GCS in 1998 when his sight began failing. Today he still has approximately 20% vision but will soon become totally blind. As a student at the GCS he can readily switch to the Integrated Education which is a great opportunity. If he were at another school he would have to leave it altogether. His future would be uncertain.
My question to the mother was how she feels about the illness of her son. She answered as follows:
"The damage to his sight makes me sad but I accept it as the will of God."
Fanta himself said of his problem: "I accept the problem. I am happy I am at the GCS, I can master the Braille writing and can continue my education. The danger of losing my vision completely is not a problem for me. I can still see something and nobody knows the future."
(According to the teacher the cause of his blindness was a brain tumor.)
Again, I asked the mother about her wishes for the future. For herself she sees little hope for an improved lifestyle. The most important wish in her life is for a good future for their children, especially for Fanta.
She earns her livelihood as a cleaning lady and gets 100 Birr per month. That is a meager 25 marks. Her man was a soldier and was killed during the DERG regime.
I made my last visit of the day at the home of Dasta. She is 15 years old, in the 6th grade and is the best student in the class.
Dasta lives with her aunt in a miserable cottage that belongs to a private landlord. They must pay 75 Birr (US $9.50) for it - a scandal! At least water and electricity are included. However the cottage does not have a water tap. The only faucet for people living in the immediate area is located in the courtyard.
Dasta's parents live with her two brothers and two sisters in Gondar. Gondar is approximately 400 KM from Addis Abeba.
The girl has been blind since about two years of age and has no recollection of being able to see. Nevertheless she has to work hard. So, after a visit to Gondar an aunt took her niece and placed her in the Woleita Boarding School in the south of Ethiopia. Because of the long distance from Addis she eventually was able to bring Dasta to her own home and luckily was able to enroll her in the GCS.
The aunt earns her livelihood through the sale of homemade domestic beer called "Tala", and through odd jobs. Their wish for Dasta's future is that she be able to stand on her own two feet.
Although the whole family belongs to the Orthodox Church, Dasta goes to the Pentecostal Church and to the Protestant Church. The aunt accepts that and has no problem with it.
After that visit, the teacher and I returned to the school. Dasta happily joined us because she wanted to go to the library. She took her blind cane and preceded us like a weasel. That was a big accomplishment given the condition of the streets and sidewalks. The girl goes alone to school and back daily, a distance of almost a kilometer.
General remarks:
Since the job prospects for blind students are very slight in Ethiopia, most of the students want to become attorneys, judges or teachers. Only two of those I spoke to wanted a career as an artist or lecturer.
I learned that the most frequent cause of blindness in the children was inadequate care of the children by their parents. This was not the result of unconcern, but because the parents must work hard day in and day out for their livelihood and infants which cannot yet speak for themselves must stay alone.