The Kilimanjaro Blind Trust aims to improve the lives of blind and visually impaired children in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi through projects aimed at improving their literacy. By improving literacy, more blind and visually impaired children will eventually achieve higher job placement rates, and higher literacy will improve their ability to integrate and increase their independence.

Primary goals

Ensure that every child in East Africa has access to a Perkins Braille machine and quality teaching materials
Build and run the infrastructure required to track and maintain all Perkins Braille machines in East Africa
Increase access to affordable quality Braille paper, Brailler spare parts, and other necessary supplies
Advocate on behalf of blind and visually impaired students from primary through university

The Kilimanjaro Blind Trust fixes the education gap for visually impaired children in Africa. They do this through:

NEW BRAILLE MACHINES

We regularly review all countries where we operate to understand what number of Braillers are required to deliver a minimum level of access to all visually impaired students, and ensure that new Braillers are provided where needed.

BRAILLER REPAIR

As a core foundation of our work, we build Brailler repair ecosystems in all of the countries where we operate, and we do this by providing spare parts and training repair technicians placed in a range of schools across the countries where we operate.

TEACHING SUPPORT

With a pen and paper (i.e. a Braille machine) in the hands of children who need them, we can now unlock their learning potential. We help do this by supporting teachers with learning aids and tools so that they can be as effective as possible. Soon we hope to supply Braille books too.

ADVOCACY

We also advocate on behalf of blind and visually impaired students from primary through university in the countries where we operate to try and unlock additional government funding and support for the blind – a vital strategy in our effort to creating sustainable long-term opportunities.