School opens doors to blind

Cape Town. 160202. LOFOB - League of Friends of the Blind visited Rhondebosch East Primary to teach them about living with blindness. Heidi Volkwijn sat with Imaan Benjamin(gr4, 11 yrs old), one of 2 pupils in the school that is partially blind. Imaan's blindness forces her to look closely at what she is writing to see. pic COURTNEY AFRICA

Cape Town. 160202. LOFOB - League of Friends of the Blind visited Rhondebosch East Primary to teach them about living with blindness. Heidi Volkwijn sat with Imaan Benjamin(gr4, 11 yrs old), one of 2 pupils in the school that is partially blind. Imaan's blindness forces her to look closely at what she is writing to see. pic COURTNEY AFRICA

Published Feb 4, 2016

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Cape Town - Ronderbosch East Primary School’s accommodation of a visually impaired pupil has immensely boosted the League of Friends of the Blind (Lofob)’s campaign to have blind and visually impaired people fully integrated into all spheres of society.

This year the school accepted a Grade 4 pupil, Imaan Benjamin, who has Leber congenital amaurosis, an inherited eye disease. She faces the prospect of going completely blind.

Principal Noel Petersen said they decided to accept Imaan after a meeting between the school, her parents and Lofob.

On Tuesday Lofob was at the school to run their braille awareness campaign.

One of Lofob’s biggest aims is to reintegrate blind and visually impaired people into mainstream society and to do away with the stigma often associated with it.

Lofob spokesperson Heidi Volkwijn

commended the school for accepting Imaan.

“The significance of this school is that it has taken on the visually impaired Imaan Benjamin in Grade 4. The school is quite willing, in terms of making the necessary adaptations, to accommodate the learner in a mainstream environment. So our appeal to other mainstream schools and institutions is to open their doors and not allow what appears to be a limitation to set boundaries for blind and visually impaired people,” Volkwijn said.

She said Imaan is an example of how a blind person can be integrated into the mainstream society.

The very shy Imaan said she was adjusting to her new school. She battles to see the lines in her book and writes with a thick koki pen so that she can see her writing.

Her teacher, Ingrid Pilcher, said Imaan is a happy, hard-working pupil. Pilcher is aware of what Imaan’s needs are in the classroom.

Pilcher said the interaction with Lofob is necessary so that they know how to best teach and support her.

Petersen reminded the pupils that there are people in their communities with sight challenges and who are forced to use their other senses and their bodies to “see”.

Lofob’s Portia Dingiswayo, who became completely blind at the age of 12, read from braille book Jabulani and the Lion. The children cheered as she deftly moved her fingers over the braille book.

Rudeon Davids demonstrated other tools used by visually challenged people, such as a blind walking stick, a braille typewriter, talking cellphones and calculators, as well as a water-depth measuring tool that indicates the level to which a cup or pot should be filled with boiling water.

Imaan’s mother, Wiedaad Benjamin, said her daughter was diagnosed with Leber congenital amaurosis when she was a baby. Imaan has a younger brother at the school.

“In this school they have been very supportive of Imaan and of her brother, whose sight is also not very good. He is in Grade 1,” said Benjamin.

Gerry Bergman, who is a head of department at the school, said Imaan was not the only child at their school who had a barrier to learning.

Cape Times

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