The blind and visually impaired  learners of the Uwiragiye Foundation celebrated Christmas

On Thursday, December 22, 22, Mrs. Sylvie Uwiragiye, Founder of the Uwiragiye Foundation organized an early Christmas celebration for the blind and blindvisually impaired  learners of Penn Blind School.  

Mrs. Sylvie Uwiragiye said the reason for the early celebration is to allow the learners to rejoin their biological families during the Christmas holidays. According to Mrs. Uwiragiye, that celebration is an opportunity to share joy, friendship and love between family members made by the staff and the learners.

 

The ceremonies took place in the Foundation's premises, first at the Church to share  food, chocolate and juice, then continued in a well designed garden of the same foundation where songs and dances were on the menu (narakubonye mana- I saw you, God).     Mrs. Uwiragiye emphasized that the celebration of Christmas is also for her and his entire foundation an opportunity to level out social inequalities between children.

 

Christmas is an exceptional moment, a day of joy for children, of eating together. Also, every child should live moments of happiness during this Christmas celebration that marks the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. This is why the Uwiragiye Foundation has always made it a point of honor to smooth out social inequalities by allowing blind people to benefit from the same rights as others and for the time being to spend Christmas in happiness, because a blind child is a child like any other," she explained.

 

According to Ms. Sylvie, such an action aims to give a smile to children who are more or less marginalized and who, because of their vulnerability, do not really benefit from support at home. There are children who do not receive food at home because of their parents' lack of financial means. Especially those who are blind. We are with them this year. God has allowed us to give them a smile, added.

 

Mr. Ntakirutimana Victor, the Uwiragiye Foundation secretary general and  moderator at the ceremonies, said he was pleased to see that Penn Blind School is almost the only school that has taught people living with blindness and hired six of them.

This is a specialty of our school which is also a champion in inclusive education, he said.

 

A blind pupil who was oriented to the CND testifies: "I arrived at the foundation in 2018, I passed two school years. When I arrived in 9th grade I took the national exam and I passed. The foundation continued to support me in my studies. I didn't think that I wouldn’t continue my studies, but it is thanks to this foundation that I succeeded.

Orphaned by his mother, he spends his vacations at the foundation because according to him, the foundation is a family. He thanked the founder of the foundation for "opening the eyes of those who cannot see". He also noted the difference between Penn Blind School and the CND.

 

Here we were used to studying with learners with the only disability of blindness, but at the CND it is a mixture of people living with several kinds of disabilities, he said.

Referring to the inclusive education pioneered by Penn blind School, Uwiragiye said the school not only conforms to the government's goals, but also wants the visually impaired, the blind, and those with disabilities to face the same aspects of social life together.

We want to facilitate their inclusion in school and in society and when we talk about blind children, they are children who are marginalized and we want to eradicate this marginalization in society to show that they are capable like others," she said.

Speaking about the friendship that unites these learners,Gordien, the communication advisor said that it is great to see two visually impaired, two blind children helping each other from the chapel, around the premises to the toilet. It is nice to see visually impaired and blind girls successfully providing services to their peers such as hand washing.

It should be noted  that Penn Blind School is located at 1600 m from the Stanley and Livingston stone on the national road No. 3 in Kabezi at the foot of the Gikungwe hill. Its owner is Uwiragiye Foundation whose vision is that every visually impaired child in Burundi should have full rights like any other child. The Uwiragiye Foundation's objective is to help young disabled children, especially visually impaired children, to access the most advanced system adapted to their level of disability.