By Mohamed Lamin Banya

The Head Teacher of the Milton Margai School for the Blind, Sallieu Turay has said among other thing that the school is challenged with, access to water supply, subventions, medical facilities and transportation to take the children to school are what need urgent attention.

Turay was speaking to the reporter in an exclusive interview yesterday 31st August, 2021 at the School’s campus in Freetown.

He said the Milton School for the Blind is the oldest institution in Sierra Leone with it sole function to primarily provide primary education to visually impaired children.

He said currently, the School hosts about ninety visually impaired kids on its boarding home facility on Wilkinson road and that the drought has posed very difficult challenge for their survival.

Mr. Turay went on to explain that currently, water supply to the campus is being rationed three times in a week, which according to him is not sufficient for daily hygienic upkeep.

He said they are constrained with the three days rationing particularly the time frame in which the tap is opened for use.

“You know we are dealing with visually impaired children, it is very difficult for them to access water three times a week most especially when they are residing with us on campus.” Turay said, adding that with the intervention of the SMC Chairman Andrew Lavallie, the School was provided with 10,000 liters water tank that that has been augmenting water supply on campus.

“Seriously it has affected the children; our school is working on timetable, we have timetable for every hour. Sometime you realised that when our children are supposed to go and do their studies that would be the time the tap will be opened,” he added.

Mr. Turay noted he himself often times support the children to fetch water and that this has been a challenging situation for them, noting that sometime the kids stay awake after 12 midnight just to fetch water.