In one of our preschools, in Godisang, we have a five year old blind boy, his name is Kaone Mathiba. In 2012 it was discovered that he had cancer on both of his eyes and therefore he was operated on twice in 2013. His other senses are very well developed and he has a very good memory.
Last year I have started working with him using the Montessori material which we have. We really became friends, I visited him at home and got to learn more about his family. He has three older brothers. His father has a piece job in a masonry factory , he is not able to read and write. Kaones’s mother accompanied him last year to the hospital many times. Often they had to stay there for a week when he was given chemotherapy. Towards the end of the year a new baby was born, the younger brother to Kaone.
In the beginning of 2014 I tried to convince Kaone to go back to his preschool in Rebaone, but he told me that he would not like to go.” Why?”, I asked him.” Because it’s too noisy there”, was his reply. Then I started to convince him how important it would be for him to go on learning and when I promised him that I would find a preschool with less noise he was willing to go back. So he landed up in Godisang where there is a smaller number of children.
He enjoys being there, his favorite toys are building with Lego. We from Tsibogang help the family to pay for the taxi which picks him up every day. We have purchased tactile books for him which help him to develop his tactile sense.They contain buttons, flowers in some you can even smell the scent of a flower or they contain small bells which ring. Kaone is very proud that he is the only one to use these books.
The biggest problem which still lies ahead to convince this father that Kaone has to go to a school for the blind. His father thinks that it is not necessary for Kaone to go to school. I guess he is also afraid that the disability grant which Kaone gets from the government might be finished when he goes to school. Kaone wants to learn to walk with a cane for the blind but it is very difficult to find somebody to train him in that. But he is so determined to learn that in the long run we will manage even that.