NEWS
LVDC welcomes a new volunteer!
Karibu everyone! My name is Rona, from Edinburgh in Scotland, and I’ll be volunteering here at LVDC until mid-September. My main role over the coming months is to help Bob in the Drawing and Screen-printing department.
I arrived just over a week ago now, and I’m already feeling very settled and enjoying life here in sunny Musoma town. Please do keep checking in for updates on how I’m getting on… Asante sana!
A visit from CIC
We had an organised visit last month from our supporters at Children in Crossfire (CIC). A small group came and spent the day with us to see how their support has helped with the development of the centre and the progress of the students. As well as trying out the LVDC-built tricycles for the disabled, they also got to see the children in their lessons and all the wonderful things that they have made.
We hope it was an enjoyable trip! Thank you CIC for your support!
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- Richard Moore takes a ride on a tricycle. Jr is a keen driver!
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- Richard Moore drives a tricycle by himself… All the way from Musoma to Derry?!
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- Dennis giving CIC guests a tour of the LVDC office.
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- LVDC students on training
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- Pendo, a student at LVDC, cutting out a dress.
Mgabo gets his teeth fixed in a day!
Mgabo is one of our deaf students and had lost at least 7 teeth when he was younger after being pushed over. Since then he has struggled to bite and sometimes chew. There was a concern that his inability to put on any weight was down to his eating difficulties, so we took him over to the Musoma Hospital Dental Clinic to see what could be done.
A few hours later and we were impressed with the results! Thanks to the sets of ceramic teeth donated to us by Mr Vasant, we were able to get Mgabo’s treatment free-of-charge and all completed in half a day so that Mgabo was able to enjoy his lunch with a full set of teeth.
A massive thanks to Mr Vasant and the clinic for helping us help one boy proudly show off his new smile!
LVDC says Goodbye to our volunteers Ros and Melanie!
We said goodbye to our 2 volunteers: Melanie from Germany who has been with us for 7 months, and Rosalind from Scotland who has been at the Centre for 2 months. Both are flying back to their homes on Wednesday. We are very sad to see them go as they have been of great help to us over the last few months.
Melanie has helped us obtain enough funds to keep the Sunday Sign Language Classes running for the next 6 months, as well as look for funding elsewhere for our new site and much much more. She has also helped with our seminars on Voters Rights and with all our applications to assist many with small business ventures within Mara. We wish her all the best success with the completion of her university course specializing in sign language communication.
Ros has helped to restructure our teaching curriculum throughout the Centre in order to improve the children’s reading and writing capabilities. In addition she has also helped to inspire products for our new shop due to open soon, and refurbish the screen printing department to fulfill the work needed for the future and any future contracts.
We wish both every success in the future and thank them so much for their much needed contribution. We hope we will have more volunteers in the future who will be just as inspiring and hard working as these two. Thank you Melanie and Ros!!
Safari njema!!
LVDC welcomes back Nyabina
Nyabina is a returning student who was unable to keep up her studies at LVDC due to lack of money to travel here. Now we have managed to secure enough funds for her to travel here in the short term, with an aim to secure more funds in the near future. Nyabina suffers from physical disability. It’s unclear her exact diagnosis, but she has mobility impaired of the hands, arms and legs and speech. Despite this, she is one of our brightest and hardest working students and can both read and write, so we hope she’ll progress quickly.
Sue’s 60th Birthday helps to raise over 600 GBP!
If LVDC is approached by a youngster with a disability that we are unable to help directly, we seek to find the relevant support. 2 such youngsters are Bertha and Edward who we have known very well for the last few years.
Bertha and Edward are both blind. Edward became blind aged 3 after contracting measles. Bertha became blind by the time she was 6 and in 2009 she sadly lost both of her parents within the same week – one through illness and the other in a road accident returning from the hospital.
Both Bertha and Edward are now studying to become teachers for the visually-impaired and blind, primary and nursery children.
Sue very kindly asked all her friends and family to join her in raising funds for Bertha and Edward as part of her 60th birthday celebrations. Thanks to everyone they raised over 600 GBP!
LVDC would like to say a huge thank you on behalf of Bertha and Edward, to Sue and all her friends and family who supported her.
And also, a very very Happy 60th Birthday Sue… we wish you all the very best!
LVDC welcomes 3 more students
Today we welcomed 3 more students to LVDC. Otieno is new to the Center and has chosen to specialize in woodwork. He is deaf but a very studious student so we are all sure he will do very well. Sadam joins us in metalwork. He is our first non-disabled student. As part of a new government initiative, 30% of the students at the Center are supposed to be non-disabled. This is to help encourage integration between non-disabled and disabled students. Sadam will attend the same classes as the other students and learn sign language for the very first time. Our final student Dickson, is a returning student who suffers from cleft feet. He has come back to specialize in the screen-printing department in preparation for our new shop.
New writing classes
Today we started our new writing classes. We realised that some of the students are more advanced than others in reading and writing. So today we split the class into two. The more beginner level concentrated on writing upper and lower case letters A, B and C in repetition. The more advanced students had to read a short story about fish and insects from the blackboard before copying it into their exercise books and answering questions on the story.
LVDC Welcomes 2 New Students to the Centre
In the last couple of weeks we have welcomed Dori Isack and Chacha Wive. Dori suffers from cleft feet and Chacha is deaf like many of the children at the Centre. Both have settled in very well. Chacha has found a friend in Mgabo and Dori has been excelling in the drawing classes. I hope to put up some new photos soon!
LVDC is now on Facebook!
We have now set up a page on Facebook so that all our friends, volunteers and supporters can keep track of us and our blog. I’ve added a link below so please come and find us: Lake Victoria Disability Centre | Create your badge
WELCOME TO LVDC
