Those in Darkness: The Blind Center in Togo

By Kay Washer

Africa has been called the "dark continent." For the thousands who have lost their sight, it will always be a land of darkness, both physical and spiritual.

While my husband Dal and I worked in the Niger Republic, my heart was burdened for its many blind people. Most became beggars just to survive. I thought, If I could teach them Braille, they would be able to read the Bible and learn about Jesus Christ. I learned Braille and prepared lessons for students to read with their fingers. Excitement ran through the village as "those without eyes" read dots on paper!

Dal and I went to Togo in 1974, and found that parasites, measles, glaucoma, birth defects, and accidents caused many to lose their sight. Parents took their children to fetish priests to try to regain their sight. Children endure a painful ceremony, including putting harmful medicines in their eyes, and trying to appease evil spirits by pouring animal blood over idols.

Dal and I started a class for a few blind boys we found on the streets in the capital city of LomŽ. Our classroom was a grass hut in the yard. Using the French Braille alphabet, the boys learned to read from a series of primers.

Since we ourselves were in the process of learning the tribal language, Ewe (E-vey), we hired a translator to teach the Bible lesson and a craft: weaving chair seats from sea grass.

Through hospital visitation, DaPauline came to Christ and wanted to help her people come out of darkness to Light. We could not have carried out the blind work without her help.

Ewe is the language most people in Togo understand. It was no coincidence that a student arrived who spoke both English and Ewe. He worked with us to create a Braille alphabet. Our blind children now read the Bible verses and complete Bible correspondence courses in Braille.

Dal's great passion was to preach God's Word in the 59 villages along the road stretching across Togo-from Kpalimé to Atakpamé. In most villages, the chiefs granted him permission, and after the evening meal, people gathered to listen to the foreigner speak. It was Dal's delight to explain God's saving love for them. We discovered many blind adults and children who had absolutely no hope. My burden for the blind grew.

When ABWE missionaries, the Fields and Neufelds, arrived in Lomé to plant churches, Dal and I moved to Kpalimé, renting a house and a small building for our blind classes. Through Bible classes in our home, a nucleus for a church was formed. As we became acquainted with people in Kpalimé, they told us of their blind relatives. In one family the grandparents, parents, and five children were all blind from congenital cataracts. One little boy could still see a bit. His parents insisted we take him in our school. We named him Emu (mosquito) because he was tiny and could not sit still, flitting around constantly.

With 12 students we outgrew the grass hut and rented a house. Word spread all over Togo about blind people who could read and write by making dots on paper. From neighboring African nations, parents appeared with their blind children, hoping we would keep them in our school.

The government offered us land for our work. Since we felt the blind work should be a part of the local church ministry, we were happy to get a piece of land in the Kpalimé area. God provided the money we needed for dormitories, dining room and kitchen. Today we have a large campus-a testimony to our Savior's provision.

Living in a rain forest, we were often troubled by deadly poisonous snakes. We prayed daily that the children would be kept safe. In the 25 years of the Blind Center, not a single child has been bitten.

Every furlough I shared the need for personnel. Not just anyone would do. We needed a nurse, as the children had many physical needs; a person with a love for handicapped children; a person with the ability to improvise and make do with what we had. Most of all, this person needed to love the Savior enough to carry out this labor of love.

In 1988 Jane Hankin was appointed by ABWE to work with the blind in Togo. The students feel her love for them as she treats their sores or puts drops in hurting eyes. In the dark of night you can find Jane caring for a child with a raging fever. In the daytime she oversees cooking and cleanliness.

We also needed teachers. One of our students had been trained in a teachers college before he went blind. Becoming a beggar was beneath his dignity, and he contemplated suicide. Someone told him about "The Village of Light" as our school is known. While learning Braille at the Blind Center, he accepted Christ as Savior. After he finished his studies, we hired him as a teacher. He testifies, "I am thankful to God for my blindness because otherwise I would never have come here to the Village of Light where I found Christ as my Savior. Even though I am blind physically, someday when I go to heaven, I will receive my sight again and will see Jesus with my new eyes."

Another man had became blind while director of a public school. Maitre Kwassivi accepted Christ at the mission church, After learning Braille, he became a capable teacher, and in 1989 become director of our school.

As the school grew to 50 students, we upgraded our curriculum so that we taught the same courses as the public schools. We needed to be recognized as an official school so that the students could take the government exams. We asked for and received an invitation to present our request to the President of Togo. He graciously gave an audience to Dal and me. We showed him many text books we had put into Braille, gave him a copy of the Braille alphabet in his native Kabiye language, and the book of Matthew in French Braille. The Minister of Education made an official visit to our school and gave permission for blind students to do their exams in Braille. Later, our high school graduates were permitted to enter university.

Since the beginning of the work with the visually handicapped, we prayed that some of our graduates would serve the Lord as evangelists or pastors. Receiving training would be difficult but the Bible is in French Braille, and the student could take class notes in Braille, only needing help with research.

Every time we present a new idea, the students' first reaction is that it would be too difficult for a blind person. After they try and find they can do it, they are excited that God's promise is true: "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them" (Isaiah 42:16).

Back to Top	Respond to this Article Email Article to a Friend Print this Article