PHOTO: Mrs. Eve D.K. Nefor, vice principal for Liberia School for the Blind (Image used with permission)
By Leila B. Gbati-PwD Reporting Fellow
The Vice Principal for the Liberia School for the Blind, Eve D.K Nefor is advancing ‘hands-on training for those with disabilities in the Liberian society.
Her call comes as the result of more persons with disabilities wandering the streets of Monrovia seeking handouts from people of goodwill.
But this vice principal thinks that providing hands-on training for them will be better than providing little cash to them along the streets.
In Liberia, there are few institutions that are helping people with disabilities and the School for the Blind is one of such entities.
The Liberia School for the Blind, which is located in Mango Town in the Virginia suburb of Monrovia, is free of charge, accommodating students with visual impairments from the primary to junior high school levels.
Since its establishment, this school continued to make strides, especially when it comes to meeting the objective of providing education for visually impaired kids.
Apart from academics, the school is also providing computer skills training for students, in order to help expose the children to technology and the wider world.
As part of its efforts to broaden the scope of education of students, the school had earlier introduced the teaching of music to the kids. But due to the lack of support, this program could not continue.
Vice Principal, Madam Nefor, who is also one of the successful products of the and a success story today, said that scholarship is a serious issue for students to attain so as to further their education after completing studies at the School for the Blind.
Speaking with this reporter, Madam Nefor indicated that there is a pressing need for vocational and hands-on training that students with disabilities will undergo, in order to help make them independent citizens like others without disabilities.
According to her, not everyone will be opportune to get an office job after leaving high school.
If the students acquire skills of different kinds, it will provide some form of livelihood for them.
She said the lack of skills training for young people with disabilities who have completed high school are some of their major challenges. Because of that, she said their efforts go to waste emphasizing that it is the right for every child to go to school and no one should be left behind, regardless of their condition(s).
Mrs. Nefor called on the government to put in more efforts toward the school so that they can be able to meet the objective of educating children in such category, so that they can have a brighter future and contribute to the development of Liberia.
The School of the Blind Vice Principal also said that she and other co-workers’ efforts cannot go anywhere, without the efforts and contributions of the Liberian government and other partners who what to see people with disabilities living a dignified life. This is in keeping with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
“We hope that President George Manneh Weah can come and visit the school and do some site seeing and just face the reality on the ground. The government needs to priority this school and our main challenge is inadequate funding and this is impeding our efforts because without adequate funding we cannot provide compensation to our staffers,” the young visually impaired educator said.
Most disabled people are poor and due to their low financial standing, parents cannot afford to fully support kids, she noted.
“At times, children come to the school with multiple disabilities, how we can handle them?” Mrs. Nefor asked.
“Due to the lack of adequate support to train our staff to take care of them, we end up sending those kids with multiple disabilities home. So, the future is not for them but if there is adequate support where staffer can be to help take care of person’s with multiple disabilities than they too can have a future.”
Young Blind student join plead to Gov’t
Emmanuel Y. Peterson is a 7th grader at the School for the Blind.
In an interview with this Reporter, he passionately pleaded with the Liberian government not to forget about them–those with disabilities.
Like any other child who always believes in his/her parents, Emmanuel has urged every Liberian parent who has child or children with disabilities to try their best to send their those kids to school.
Emmanuel Y. Peterson (Image used with permission)
This 7th grader said parents should not see the disability of their kids as a death sentence and disallow them of their right to get education.
“Please leave our brothers and sisters let them come to school for us to learn, our disability should not be an obstacle to us having a better future, because education is the key to success,” little Emmanuel said as he tried to recognize me but his sight could not permit.
He is appreciative to the administration of the School for the Blind for the efforts they are making to ensure that children with visual disability in Liberia acquire education.
Earlier, the School’s Vice Principal outlined different challenges, but little Emmanuel’s own challenges is that he and other kids at the institution are faced with the lack of poster sheets for them to write on. They need computers for them to do practical since they are also learning computer skills.
In keeping with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, PwDs have all rights to obtain education that will enable them contribute to society instead of being beggars and seen as objects of pity. Publication of this article was made possible with support from Internews Inclusive Media project.