SAINT LUCIA’S BLIND: OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND?

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]o have all one’s senses be fully functional is a blessing many enjoy but few appreciate until a defect is detected. Although not the exact year or month, I do remember the moment I noticed my vision was beginning to deteriorate. I was about 15 years old, standing in front of the wide, horizontal mirror in my mother’s room. After casually studying my face, I turned my attention to my body and took a few steps backward for a full view. Standing then about five feet from the mirror, my facial features seemed unusually indistinguishable. My eyes looked like two off-white, clouded marbles, my lips blurry, pink slits. I walked to and from the mirror for about two minutes, in disbelief, hoping at some point the blurriness would dissipate. As the days ensued, discoveries of all the things I would struggle to see continued to dishearten me: the blackboard at school, the television and, worst of all, the stars when I looked up at the sky at night.

Luckily for me, glasses and contacts sufficiently corrected my vision; however, the scales of sight impairment can get much worse, even irreversible, as tumours, strokes, accidents and optic neuritis are only a few occurrences possible of rendering one unexpectedly blind. Then, there are the more gradual, degenerative conditions like glaucoma and cataracts. When blindness comes knocking, a sudden need arises for specific adjustments to be made to living spaces, learning equipment, workstations, and for the running of errands— changes that may not just be costly but intimidating without aid and knowledge from adequate sources.

The Saint Lucia Blind Welfare Association (SLBWA) was established by an Act of Parliament (No.9 of 1972) “to provide education and vocational training, employment, and also assist generally with the provision of social and other services for blind and vision impaired people” across Saint Lucia. Ever since then the organisation has remained in operation through donations and partnerships with local and foreign stakeholders, in order to make life on the island a bit more manageable for those who experience it in perpetual darkness. The association also employs staff with and without sight in the following areas: administrative, medical, supporting, teaching positions, amongst others. Needless to say, every good cause encounters challenges.

Last year the SLBWA was forced to re-strategize when incoming funds dwindled. With the economic climate of the world constantly changing, many of the organisation’s international donors could no longer support Saint Lucia’s visually impaired, due to financial challenges. This was when the SLBWA issued a cry for support. However, in July of 2017, when relief did not come, the association was forced to put staff on rotation for four months by shortening their work-week. Despite receiving small doses of monetary support, the situation has continued. Since the end of February of this year, four employees have been let go.

Anthony Avril, Executive Director and contributor to the SLBWA for nearly thirty-seven years, told the STAR, “That is the last thing we want to do because people are employed because of a need the association has, and the association is here because of needs that people have. So, you don’t want to have to terminate people’s employment. When you do that it also adds pressure to the remaining staff.”

Amongst the association’s current donors is the Saint Lucian government. Last week, during a Choice TV News Broadcast, the association debunked rumours that the government had stopped providing its yearly direct subvention of a little under EC$100,000. Mr Avril, during his interview with the STAR, explained further, “The direct subvention to the association is small; its less than $100,000. However, that does not necessarily represent the amount of government support because the government pays the teachers [teachers stationed in schools, who are working with visually impaired children] and government provides waiver of duties on all the materials and equipment we have to import from outside.”

Ideally, the SLBWA should offer a range of services including, but not limited to, a paediatric ophthalmic programme addressing the eye health needs of children, an inclusive education programme for children with blindness and vision impairment, rehabilitation at the community level, repairs and construction of homes for the vision impaired—the latter of which has stopped completely in the last five years. Currently, the most constant service, although down-sized, has been the eye clinic.

When asked, Avril indicated during our interview that about EC$600,000 to EC$1,000,000 per year would be needed to run the association effectively and, “If we had to respond to the needs around the island as we see it, it would be a lot more than that,” he voiced.

A former employee, who was recently let go, during a live Radio Caribbean International News broadcast on Wednesday March 14 alleged that the SLBWA does not maximize efforts to raise and maintain its own funds. Upon request, Mr. Avril, who normally prefers to remain silent in such situations, gave this response: “People are free to express themselves the way they feel like. Those who are screaming have benefitted the most. We are serving the general public; it would be good for others who have benefitted to give another side of the story.”    

No longer operating with extensive aid from foreign establishments, fund-raising and other local initiatives have become a major priority for the SLBWA. One initiative the group has had in the works for a while is the “dollar drive” which aims to incorporate local co-operatives across the island to have employees voluntarily contribute at least $1 a month as a donation to the organisation. In conjunction with a local TV station, a telethon is also in the works.

The association has issued an open call for volunteers to serve in finance, rehabilitation, driving and in any other useful capacity. New association members are also welcomed in various areas including the resource mobilization committee, which deals with the organisation and operation of fund-raising initiatives.

Despite setbacks, the SLBWA continues to adamantly adhere to its mandate of establishing an inclusive society where services, agencies and businesses consider the blind and vision impaired in their operations. I imagine that a society where we are all provided the means to comfort would serve not just for better livelihoods but also increased productivity and output. In the words of Mr. Avril, “If it remains that once someone becomes vision impaired it is the purview of the SLBWA only, then our society has not grown.”