In less than a year since it was first conceived, the dream of having a workshop at Abia High school has come true. It has surpassed my expectations. Since early in 2022 I have been talking to the British High Commission (BHC) about the possibility of a small grant to support the APT project. The grant was successfully applied for in the summer and supposed to start last September, but due to the uncertainty in British politics at that time the grant was frozen indefinitely. Our main funding partner, Glasswaters Foundation Canada, agreed to fund a workshop at the Abia if we could get the school to sign a legal contract agreeing to conditions of ownership and use.
I had to jump through a series of increasingly difficult hoops to get the document signed, including a last-minute addition by the Chair of the school board to agree to abide by Catholic protocols. I have little idea what this meant, but an uncomfortable meeting with him where he launched into a strange diatribe about Islamists and gay people led me to decide not to air my opinion of live and let live. I tell staff just to be sensible, we are on land owned by the Catholic church and not do anything that might offend.
After looking into the possibility of a container for a workshop it seemed far easier to build a tin shed, of which there are thousands of various sizes in Lesotho. It should have been straight forward, but the weather was terrible, also I wasn’t there most of the time to oversee building work, being either in Leribe, or the UK, and by the end of the year we ended up with a rather wonky tin shed, which only had a small capacity to store our equipment and room for a couple of people to work at a time. Then, without warning, in December, the BHC said the grant was now available, but the project still had to be finished by the end of March.
As we had already built the tin shed, I asked if it would be okay to change the original proposal to building an outdoor training space. To be honest I’m not sure exactly what this would look like, except that we needed some sort of large area to train in. Also, if we could include wheelchair training in the proposal. Donations from home brought in over 20 wheelchairs by the end of last year which needed maintaining, and most of the wheelchairs had been donated to students at Saint Angela who access mainstream schooling at Abia High and the adjacent Primary. The BHC agreed, but by the time I returned to Lesotho in January and with a commitment already been made to build a path to the disability toilets at the primary school (which UNICEF Lesotho had kindly built, but wheelchair students were unable to access) the timeline to complete the project and the six activities we had committed to, became squeezed into a period of about 8 weeks.
The pressure is huge, and I soon realise I cannot be in two places at once and must leave the outreach work in Leribe for Mme Maja to take care of and base myself in Maseru. I am blessed by two events. Without warning a kind friend in the UK gives me a donation, the same amount as the BHC grant, to do what I will with. This immediately reduces the financial concerns of the cost of the building work because I know I’ve got it covered and we don’t have to end up with a compromise build not fit for purpose. I also find out that the APT trainer I know in Leribe, Mahlomola, is a good builder, and someone I can rely on to do a quality job. He comes to Maseru in the New Year to stay with a friend, build the pathway at the school, correct the problems of the tin shed and start on the workshop training area.
By the end of January, Mahlomola has outstayed his friends welcome, and I find a guest house in Maseru that can accommodate us both and we can concentrate on getting the workshop ready for the training. Mahlomola is only a young guy, in his twenties, but a man of many talents and is tasked with building the workshop, as well as running the APT and wheelchair training. It’s a big ask and I nurture him with beer and take aways to keep him going, while running around doing numerous jobs to project manage and trying to keep the building supplies up to date for the ever-evolving workshop.
As the building work goes on, we all put ideas in, a concrete slab needs shade and shelter, so a roof is built, then wooden planks put up on the sides to give some privacy, a water butt for water supplies, a place to store all the cardboard we use, a bench around the inside for seating, work tables for wheelchair users which can also accommodate people who can stand. The building looks like a barn has landed in Lesotho but is a completely unique and disability friendly space which can be adapted for any of our training needs and even be a sports area for the kids. The weather is stormy, electricity supplies erratic, the man that Mahlomola has hired to help him, worse than useless, and the building completion date goes down to the wire.
Hours before the APT course starts Mahlomola is still finishing the benches and we are madly painting the floor, even our accountant joins in with the last-minute rush. While the final finishing touches are still needed, the workshop training area is ready to run the APT training and wheelchair courses. It comes into its own. It. Is. Glorious! Five teachers, 10 students, 5 with disabilities, split into 5 mixed groups and each produce an APT chair for a child who needs supportive seating.
The two high school teachers join our technician for wheelchair training, repair chairs, adjust chairs, redesign them, take them apart, weld them and on the last morning we go to Saint Angela to do some basic skills with the children. Somehow in-between the two courses I go with Mahlomola to bring 5 more new wheelchairs in from South Africa and tools for the wheelchair training including a welding machine. It’s all covered by donations and after a heart stopping moment on the border, when we discover the customs official has made a typo on paperwork and the car registration is wrong, we finally cross on the second attempt.
When I look back over the last two months I can’t believe what we have achieved. Not all the activities for the project are finished yet. We have a visit from the BHC on March 15th and I must still write the project report for the BHC by April. It is a retrospective grant which currently Glasswaters has paid for, so I must produce the evidence that we have done the project and what it cost. It’s not over but I hope by April the stress will be significantly less, maybe I will get a full night’s sleep, maybe even have a day off!
I cannot thank Ntate Mahlomola, POP staff, Abia High school teachers, friends, Glasswaters, the BHC and everyone who has supported the project, enough. We now have this amazing workshop that will benefit children with disabilities for years to come and the beginning of a skills base to draw on to sustain the work. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
Please click on the links to view You Tube videos
Abia APT centre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-TLL9yP1LM&t=1s
POP Wheelchair training
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h5PTJCWNlg
