The Founder and Principal of the Educational Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ECBVI), is calling on the Government and other partners in education to make available more teaching and learning materials for visually impaired persons, at all levels of formal and non-formal education.
Thomas Allieu made this appeal during an interview with Awoko, where he disappointedly revealed his story of not becoming the first blind Sierra Leonean lawyer, at the Faculty of Law, at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.
Allieu as a child went through the Milton Margai School for the Blind, the only primary Institution in Freetown for the blind and completed his first degree through many hardships and struggles in History and Political Science, in 1999, where he nurtured his lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer. He added that the library of the University (FBC) were not equipped to provide Braille materials on law or in electronic format, coupled with the negative socio-cultural beliefs in the Country, which further impedes persons with disability. Furthermore, during his law studies, there were no legislations specifically designed to fight for the rights of privileges that could be accorded persons with disability, in Sierra Leone. As a result, Thomas Allieu’s hope was dashed and he had to drop out off the legal field in the third year.
“My poor background could not allow me to fight for my right to education and to continue my course elsewhere like other visually impaired in other countries”. However, all was not lost and he kept the dream alive of providing a centre for visually impaired which gave birth to the ECBVI in 2001, now at Grafton where various courses are offered in formal and non-formal education, and registered with the Ministry of Higher and Technical Education. He noted that in collaboration with partners ECBVI created an all inclusive educational environment, wherein persons with disability can learn side by side with non-disabled persons, as a way of fighting discrimination and stigma and make young people become better citizens in their various communities.
Amara Kargbo the Registrar at ECBVI, took Awoko on a conducted tour of the educational complex which has the only Braille library and Braille printing press, as well as an all inclusive Information Technology lecture room, to promote the educational training of the blind and visually impaired on how to use computers and other digital devices using a screen reader software on MS Word, MS Excel, an expensive software used to navigate the internet independently, in order to help the blind acquire requisite skills for them to be competitive and employable. Unfortunately, Kargbo noted that out of 15 computers only 4 are in working condition, for a class of over 20 students.
According to Principal Thomas Allieu, the centre seeks to promote the rights, interests and empowerment of blind persons, the physically challenged including young people in deprived neighborhoods, through an all inclusive technical and vocational education, that is certified by the NCTVA.
By Ade Campbell