The Embassy of Italy in Tanzania is glad to announce the inauguration of a
“Deaf-Blind Unit Construction Project”, called UHURU MCHANGANYIKO, at the
Uhuru School located in ILALA MUNICIPALITY, Dar-es-Salaam.
The school is opposite Tanzania Breweries, along Uhuru road, Kariakoo Area
and the inauguration ceremony will be held on July 20th at 10.30 a.m. at the
presence of Government officials, a representative of the Embassy of Italy,
delegates of the NGO Feed the Children, Mrs. Dorotea Liguori, main
contributor to the above mentioned NGO, teachers and pupils.
The School has a total of 659 pupils, of which 188 are under Special
Education
due to their special needs and 13 of them are deaf-blind.
Please see Table below for clarity:
*Unit category *
*Blinds *
*Deaf blinds*
*Mentally challenged*
Sex
Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Number
35
32
7
6
60
46
Total
67
13
106
All these special unit pupils come from different parts of Tanzania like
Tanga 3, Dar es salaam 2, Mwanza – Geita 1, Mwanza – Ukerewe 1, Tabora –
Nzega 1, Kigoma – Nguruka 1, Zanzibar 1, Manyara 1 and Mtwara 1. Their Age
range between 6-17 years.
*The DeafBlind Categories are as Follows:-*
A) Total DeafBlind
B) Partial Sighted but Total Deaf
C) Total Blind but Partial Deaf
D) Partial deafBlind
E) Multiple sensory Impairment (MSI)
The school Started in 1964, whereby in 1974 the first special needs unit was
created in the school. Since then, Uhuru Mchanganyiko has been receiving
special needs pupils from all over Tanzania.
New Business in schedule:
The proposed unit construction should be of two types
1. A general unit – that basically will accommodate the firstly enrolled
deaf blind pupils
*2. *Partitioned unit – that will accommodate 6 pupils and 6 teachers per
session. This is simply because the deaf blind pupils are of varied
categories so they need different teaching/learning methodologies. *Refer,
Deafblind categories, deafblind- teacher pupils ratio.*
The project is realized by Feed the Children Tanzania, a national NGO branch
of the *Feed the Children International*. Feed the Children Tanzania has
pograms in tehmatic areas of food & nutrition, health & education, WASH and
livelihood development.
Among the main contributors to the programs of Feed the Children in Africa
is *Mrs. ** Dorotea Liguori*, Italian enterpreneur who dedicated herself
to charity. Although very busy in her successful business in the field of
jewelry, Mrs. Liguori has also found the time to be the Chairperson of Feed
the Children – Italian branch, which is an international NGO taking care of
abandoned children in different parts of the world. The first idea of
having an Italian branch of Feed the Children in Naples was put forward
during the event which proclaimed Mrs. Liguori one of the most prestigious
women enterpreneurs worldwide. This happened in Venice in 2002.
Since then, Mrs. Liguori is a major donor to Feed the Children and has
donated more to the Abandoned Baby Center managed by the said NGO in
Nairobi, than any of its generous donors. She has given literally hundreds
of thousands of dollars to the Center. Her leadership has caused others to
give their time and resources to the Center. Mrs. Liguori works tirelessly
year round for her fund raising activities, which benefitted more than 500
children hosted at the Abandoned Baby Center in Nairobi. Over the last nine
years, Dorotea Liguori has been a faithful and loyal friend of Feed the
Children. More importantly, she has been a faithful and loyal friend of the
children served by this organization and in particular by the Abandoned Baby
Center.
Now she is here in Tanzania to inaugurate the “deaf-blind unit” mentioned
above.