Operation Classroom: Kabala Blind School Project

Musicians and students at the Kabala School For The Blind celebrate the Operation Classroom visit to their school. OC members brought gifts from the US and visited the local market prior to the visit to make sure that all students knew that they had not been forgotten by the OC Teams. The summer visit provided a reminder of the support that OC has for this school.

Photographs, video, audio and descriptions by Hope Law and Les Law



Kabala blind students stand in front of their dormitory building [above left, 2008]. That building had few unbroken windows and the inside was unfit for habitation. The new (domitory) building built by the government of Sierra Leone is pictured in the upper right. This is to be the classroom section but the students couldn’t wait to move there and are using it as a dormitory until the new dormitory is finished. A dormitory wing is pictured below left.

A new well and an established cooking program insures that students have regular meals and healthy water. In 2008 a young teenage boy whose brother was blind did the cooking for the students.

In the future students who attend classes in a temporary classroom will be taught in a school building now under construction. (The temporary classrooms will be used until the new dormitory is finished and then they can move into their classroom building.) The dormitory building is being built by a friend of a Kabala City Council person that lives in Italy they started it in March and have now gone back to raise more money to finish the building. It has a boys area with built in showers - and a girls area. It will be very nice - and it is hoped they can fund it and then finish it soon. They will then move into it and the main building will be the classrooms. Secondary students walk to Kabala Secondary School (5miles) for classes.

The OC Team worked on the staff building. Most of the staff members are also blind and were former students. We will hopefully finish this building so the staff members and their families can move to the site soon.

Other projects they want and need - Library and study room - sports field - water storage tank and piping to the dormitory building. (Future projects for OC).




The head-master, Emmenuel Mansaray runs the school and works with the Sierra Leone government and other organizations to provide the quality of education that these students need.

He brings hope to each student and prepares them to become an important part of the community where they live.

The school now has 56 students in Class 1-6, 9 students in Form 1-6 (in Kabala schools), and 5 students at Polytech in Makeni.

The Kabala School for the Blind has 5 full time teachers at the Blind School.

The OC Team member Carissa Ortega - a blind student at Heritage HS in Littleton, Colorado and her teacher aide, Nancy Knight came to Kabala with suitcases filled with Braille School books, math tools, braille maps, story books, clocks, games (footballs, frisbees, cards,etc) and other supplies given and purchased in Colorado by friends when they heard they were going to help a Blind school in Sierra Leone - where they had nothing!!

They found a place that would help with the purchase of white canes for every student and staff at the Blind School in Kabala. They were able to bring them (in a huge box) at no extra charge!! This was their first gift to the students!!! They practiced walking with them - even on the road into Kabala!

Carisa and Nancy - with Emmenuel and Peacemaker went on the Kabala Radio Station to explain to the whole community the meaning of the “white cane” and how drivers or walkers should respond when they see someone with the canes! They seriously changed (educated) the way people treated and thought about blind people. This happened everywhere we went in Sierra Leone!! (This was my best dream come true for the Blind in Kabala) - what a wonderful experience. The lives of all of us were enriched by watching this amazing 2 weeks of learning, playing, and loving.

They are both continuing to research where we can get more items to send to the school both in Kabala and in Makeni. Yao did that Math Workshop for the Blind school there and found they had nothing so met with us one weekend in Kabala and I think Emmenuel will work with him to do another workshop and help them! Pretty amazing to think where they have come since we first met them in that horrible building and no toilets.

The OC involvement began in the summer of 2008 when Dorcas Kamanda made the OC team aware of the urgent need of help for the blind studfents in the Kabala area.


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