Literacy classes to physically disabled.

One day a lady called Christine turned up at one of the classes to ask us if we would come and teach physically disabled and mentally handicapped. We are now teaching once a week in a tent two different groups - physically handicapped young people who have not been able to attend ordinary school and mentally handicapped who have also not received an education. Some were born handicapped, two have had strokes and one was shot in the head. One girl called Mirriam sat in her shack for years with no contact with the outside world apart from her family. Sophie also has mainly just been in her room all her life - they are both about 18. The wonderful thing is that they are making progress and their families are thrilled. They are learning phonics and some basic phrases and are learning to write for the first time in their lives. Some are learning to hold a pencil, others those whose hands are deformed are learning to write in trays of salt. We are also very slowly teaching them simple Bible verses. It takes three us us (myself, Jasper or Chris and 11 year old Victoria ) to teach them. We are also training the local black volunteers to teach them at other times of the week to reinforce what they are learning and making materials for them, like flash cards, writing books and other aids.