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- Achievements
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- People we've helped
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- Village Vision
- Sorufa's Story
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- Restoring Sight in Bangladesh
- Top of the Class
- Africa without river blindness
- Hakim's Story
- Reaching more children
- Abdoulie's Story
- Talking to Angeline Akai
- Mama's Independance
- Lasoi's Story
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- Kaduna State
- Caught in Time
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Making music, Two young campers getting into the swing of things. © BCVI/Sightsavers
Summer Camps
Happy camping!
Every year BCVIs (the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired) host a summer camp for young people. The aim of the camp is to teach young people who are blind or visually impaired useful skills for living with their disability in a fun environment.
Held in July, the theme of last year's camp was ‘Inclusion', which is also the fundamental aim of BCVI, who strive for the social and educational inclusion for all Belizeans, regardless of disability or race.
Ranging in age from 4 to 23, many of the young people who attended the camp go to mainstream schools or work alongside sighted people. With just 20 campers, this year's camp was smaller and more individualised than it has been before, those attending were carefully selected based on need. It aimed to teach them skills that will allow for inclusion in all aspects of home, school, work and community life.
Online revolution
By taking time over the summer to learn new skills and refine old ones, the camp makes the transition between school years easier for children who are blind or partially sighted. Alongside tuition in reading and writing Braille, students were also taught how to use computers.
They learn to produce Word documents, send emails and explore the internet. This helps enormously at school and work, where use of computers is becoming increasingly commonplace.
Clients also learn valuable practical skills for helping their parents around the house, such as making beds, washing dishes and sorting laundry. The camp also runs art classes where students can create tactile art works.
Field trips
The highlight of the camp is always the field trip, and this year was no exception. This year's excursion was a trip to Miami Beach in the Corozal District, made possible thanks to a generous donation from the Corozal City Council. Here the children enjoyed fearlessly diving into the water, with the public often taken aback by the children's confidence!
Seven-year-old Juan Noel Reina has been attending the camps since he was two, and says they are the highlight of his year: "We get to do arts and learn a lot of things like Braille. My favourite thing is maths". When asked what his fondest memory of camp is, Reina responded: "I will remember my friends, forever."
