Four Blind Siblings In Akatsi North Seek Help To Go To School

Four blind siblings at Korve in the Akatsi-North District on Monday appealed for financial and material support to make their dreams of enrolling in the school of the blind a reality. The children, aged 18, 16, eight and four, have never stepped foot in the classroom.Two of their five elder siblings who have good sights are in school. John Ahiagble, 4, made the appeal when Mr James Gunu, District Chief Executive of the area visited the family to inform them about the Assembly�s decision to send Yemebuo Ahiagble, 8, to the Akropong School of the Blind. John told the Ghana News Agency he and his other two siblings also want to be in school and appealed to non-governmental organizations and philanthropists to come to their aid. John is said to have always wanted to be in school and cried anytime he heard children going to school. Yemebuo was also said to have started school at the Korve Basic School but could not continue due to her disability. Their mother, Lucy Korsua Memuda, 39, a single parent, therefore would leave the two children with their paternal grandmother, who is also blind, whenever she went to the farm. She told the GNA that since her husband died, she and her children depend on her subsistence farming. Madam Memuda, who was called from the farm, said due to her financial status, she could not send the four blind children to the school of the blind and expressed gratitude to the Akatsi-North Assembly and the DCE. She said though Abigail, 16, was married with a child, she would also love to go to school, likewise Kodzo, 18, a palm wine taper. Madam Memuda said she believed such an opportunity would lessen the economic pressure on her and give the children a brighter future. There are reports of a few other young persons in the community who are blind. At nearby Agormor, also in the Akatsi-North District, a couple is also said to have all three children blind. Mr Gunu said the Assembly was assisting some 150 people with various forms of disability including blind persons to go into commercial farming. He appealed to philanthropists to come to the aid of the blind children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), visual loss in infants could be either prenatal - occurring at the time of conception or during the intrauterine period or postnatal - during or after birth. Childhood blindness is said to have implications for infants� development, education, and future social, marital, and economic prospects.