Education and training

Special education for deafblind children is rare in East Africa and often located too far from the homes of many deafblind children for them to attend. But Sense International East Africa is working to change this.

In 2005 and 2006, we began work with the St Mark VII Primary School in Bwanda, Tanzania, to construct a new unit for 20 deafblind children. We also started a new deafblind unit at the Iringa School for the Deaf in Tanzania.

In the coming years, we will continue to work with each government in the region to ensure that teachers get appropriate training. The Kenya Institute of Education (KISE) has started a two-year training programme for ten teachers of deafblind children, based on the curriculum developed by Sense International India and field tested throughout India.

This is a great example of sharing best practices among our country offices, which helps to build the expertise of professionals working on deafblindness, and to improve services for deafblind people around the world.