The April group of volunteers are installed at Abugida School, are working and are happy. Each one has started with their entrusted tasks: Nacho is laying synthetic flooring in the classrooms of the nursery and blind children. In this way the floors will be softer and less cold. He is going to install a washbasin for the cooks in Fitawrari School so that they don’t have to bend double to wash up. And this is just the start.
Teresa is always at hand in the kitchen, nursery, in all areas. Laura is with the nurse and also organising learning activities for the children. Maite is giving dancing classes to the women, which seems to be changing from salsa to flamenco. In fact they are thinking of holding their own ‘Feria de Abril’ in Abugida. I would love to see the children turning themselves into proper Andalucians from Tronio. In their turn the Ethiopians are teaching them their own dances. Everyone seems to be having a good time.
With respect to the blind children, we had received incorrect information from the department of education of the Kebele, which means that we will not be receiving the number of babies expected. Therefore we have increased the ages that we accept and have split the days so that children who are blind and with very poor vision aged 4 to 10 attend school during normal hours and children aged 11 to 18 attend after school finishes. As the afternoon group of children will finish at 6 pm and they have a long way to travel we will organise a transport service for them, being horses and carts as this is what’s available in this area. The carts will collect them from a meeting point in Akaki, take them to Abugida and return them to the same meeting point in the evening.
We are going to contract two teachers from Akaki who say that they are specialised in teaching the blind. Virginia will train them when she goes out to Abugida in May. We shall also contract two carers to help with bathing the children and the meals. As always these workers will be chosen from the mothers of the school who are most in need.
We have noticed that since there are a number of mothers working in Abugida everything runs better. There’s nothing like putting mothers together with their children for things to run well.
