A group of RNIB staff, both from Northern Ireland and Peterborough, have recently returned from a highly successful trip to the Gambia, West Africa. Our mission? To install a Resource Centre in a school for children with sight loss run by an organisation known as GOVI. The School is located near Banjul, the Gambian Capital.
In April 2011, a Northern Irish charity, Children in Crossfire, in partnership with The Gambian Organisation for the Visually Impaired (GOVI) and the Royal National Institute of Blind People Northern Ireland (RNIB NI), commenced a three year programme entitled 'Integrating Visually Impaired Children into Mainstream Education'. The Department for International Development, Civil Society Challenge Fund who are co-funding this project, have awarded £425,000.
A major part of this project was to install assistive technology in to a Resource Centre located at the GOVI School. RNIB NI undertook the task of purchasing and installing over £30,000 worth of equipment. This much needed technology will enable the school to produce educational material to enhance the learning not only for the children who attend this school, but also to many other children and young people living throughout the Gambia. By first training the teachers working within the school, who will in turn share their new found skills and knowledge to other educational professionals working in all parts of the Gambia, the arrival of this facility will have significant and life changing consequences for blind and partially sighted young people for years to come.
At the outset of this project it is fair to say that the school were unable to produce adequate text books and other essential educational materials. The equipment purchased included computers and a range of assistive technology, CCTVs, braille embossers and handheld magnifiers. As much time as possible was given to training the staff who will work in the new Resource Centre, but it goes without saying that training will be ongoing so that this project is allowed to reach its potential.
During our time in the Gambia, our staff not only assembled and installed the equipment, but also met with a number of Gambian officials to increase the profile of GOVI's work. These included the mayor of Banjul and the President's Senior Protocol who, after hearing about the work of the project, agreed to facilitate future meetings with significant members of the Gambian government and hopefully the president himself.
Barry Macaulay, Senior Manager in RNIB NI said, "Being a part of a project like this is really wonderful. To witness an idea becoming reality and then to see the benefits a resource Centre such as this has to the education and lives of these children and young people, really meant a lot to all of us. We look forward to a long and rewarding partnership with our friends in the Gambia."
As with our previous trip to the Gambia, in March 2010, music played a significant part in our time there. One of the high-lights on this occasion was a morning at the school when the musicians in our party, joined in with the children's music lesson. This was really special and no one was left in any doubt of the enjoyment everyone got from this. An interesting fusion of Gambian and Irish folk music.
The next stage of the project with RNIB NI, Children in Crossfire and the GOVI organisation is that four blind or partially sighted young people from Northern Ireland will travel out to the Gambia to take up a three month voluntary work placement. This project, known as the 'Visually Impaired Volunteers in International Development' (VIVID), will begin in June of this year and was launched in Derry/Lderry on 21 March. We will, of course, be keeping in close contact with the volunteers as they progress through their placements and we wish them all the best during their time over there.
You can read the blog, written while over in the Gambia, on RNIB Northern Ireland's Facebook page.