Kangundo Blind School

Jennifer is pupil in the Kangundo Blind School, Kenya

Today Aaron returned to the Kalimani Africa Brotherhood Church to meet the members of the Cove Community Church, from the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. The Cove team have been in Kenya over the past week learning about the ministry of CBM and the Africa Brotherhood Church. We had the pleasure today of visiting the Kangundo District Education Board Primary School: founded in 1924, it is the oldest day school in this region of Kenya.

Our connection with the school is through the Kalimani Guardians of Hope who are helping 25 blind children with school uniforms and basic assistance with the Kangundo Blind School.

Brail class notes from one of the Kangundo students

The Kangundo DEB Primary School has over 1200 students from grades 1 to 8. As a government school, their class sizes run from 45 to 51 students per teacher, but classes like their sixth grade classes have 170 children to only three teachers. The forty visually impaired students come from a wide catchment area, some as far away as Nairobi.

Tim Bannister chatting with a little boy playing with a box (I think it was his imaginary truck) in the the narrow road near the Kalimani Church, Kangundo

Tim and Diane Bannister are our CBM team mates who facilitate short term missions in Kenya. Tim has been a bridge between the team and our partners in helping the volunteers understand the ministry and context in which we serve. They have had a very busy trip so far connecting with the various projects and leaders within the Africa Brotherhood Church and community.

Peter Kenward and Aaron walking along coffee fields

in Kangundo Village, Kenya

Rebecca Kenward visiting along the road

Principal Bernard Kivuva demonstrating the various teaching aids used in training visual impaired children in reading brail.

Each student learns to type their

class notes on a brail type writer

Brail Photocopier!

One of the five instructors in the blind school demonstrating their thermal form machine that is used to make copies of brail lessons and notes. Thanks to the generous gifts of various churches and organizations in Canada, the United States and Germany, the school has a good variety of equipment and tools for the blind school. During our visit, we met several teachers from across Kenya who were learning to use the brail type writers so that they could better serve visually impaired students in their schools.

All forty of the visually impaired students in the Kangundo Blind School live on campus among the 300 boarding students. As part of each students orientation, they walk every inch of the school's campus and become familiar with every nook and cranny.

The laughter and giggles of the visually impaired students were like music as we met with the teachers and school administrators. As we sat down with the children, they expressed gratitude for the help of the Guardians of Hope and the love of the Church. Please remember these children in your prayers and their school as it seeks to empower and equip this generation in Kenya.

Jacinta thanking the Guardians of Hope for their support of mattresses, uniforms and sanitary napkins that have helped her and the other students attending the blind school.

"Disability does not mean inability!"

Tim Bannister, Sean Graham, Rick Cook, Peter Kenward,

Lori Thicke, Rebecca Kenward, and Wendy Brown

singing to the visually impaired students

The beautiful hills of Ukambani, Kenya