Vegetable Garden Grows, Number of Classrooms Shrinks!

Here are some photos of the magnificent vegetables from the Vegetable Garden Project, grown by the psychologically disabled boys and girls of Akaki Mengist School, Ethiopia.

This vegetable garden has been taken as a model to demonstrate to the community that the psychologically disabled can also be contributors to society.  The vast majority of the countries psychologically disabled are out of the public eye, hidden away at home.

Regarding the construction of the new classrooms for the deaf and blind children that we had in mind, we have hit a major obstacle.

Barry, during his recent visit, made a study of the land offered by the school.  It turns out that it is the site of the old school, so would require the demolition of the existing structure, excavation down to the rock and construction on land that is sloping.  Also, because the space is limited it would need to be a two-storey building.  All this, regrettably has raised the price so much that the proposed project is now unviable.

We are now proposing to construct a classroom next to the two that are used for the children with special needs, but we don’t know if the school will agree to this change.

Meanwhile these boys and girls have hardly anything.  All the disabled are mixed up due to lack of space and depend on four teachers, full of good will but having very little education and virtually no materials.

So if there is anyone, who has appropriate training and experience working with deaf, blind or psychologically disabled children, interested in trying to improve the lives of these children and teenagers then please contact us at mediterranea.ong@gmail.com

Anything that we could do to help these children would be great.