He's the breadwinner even though he's blind

Published on Sunday 9 December 2007 01:05

HIS hands work with astonishing speed and dexterity and within a few moments a rug is starting to form. Said Mrisho, sitting cross-legged in the courtyard outside his Zanzibar home, is in his element.

He uses a metal ruler to measure lengths of the hard-wearing coconut fibre and wields scissors to cut the strands to size. Then they are all woven together to produce the carpets he sells to earn a living for himself, his wife and his three children.

Rug-making is a craft that is difficult enough for the fully-sighted but Said is totally blind.

Now 30, he lost partial vision in both eyes at the age of 10 after a playground accident. As his eyesight gradually worsened over the years he was facing a life of destitution.

Until recently in countries such as Tanzania - Zanzibar, the ancient Spice Island, lies off the coast of its mainland - people who became irreversibly blind fell to the lowest levels of society. They were perceived as becoming a burden to their families, unable to make a contribution to the daily struggle for survival when millions are living on an income of around 50p per day. At best, they were hidden away in back rooms to prevent shame falling on their family.

Jeremy Watson in Zanzibar - Third in a Series

See last week's video clip here and the previous week's here

That would have been Said's fate until he was discovered in his village on the edge of Zanzibar's capital, Stone Town, by Zanab, the Zanzibar Association for the Blind.

He agreed to learn rug-making skills and astonished his tutors by picking up the skills in weeks rather than months. For the first time he could earn a living - his sought-after rugs sell for up to 20 - and he was able to marry and now has three young children.

Now Said and his family live an independent life and he is a well-known and popular figure in Haway, his home village, which he negotiates with a white cane at a furious pace.

"I'm really grateful for the training I was given because it meant I could live much more of a normal life," he said. "Now I have the means to look after my family."

Said is a success story for Zanab, which is engaged in a constant battle for funds to help blind people lead more normal lives. They rely on donations from charities such as Sightsavers International, the British charity at the heart of Scotland on Sunday's Christmas Appeal, to continue their work.

The donations help pay for training courses - Said is now so proficient he has become a trainer himself - and for technology that assists people who have lost their sight to use computers, giving them the same opportunity to develop their skills and employment prospects as those with sight.

Hassan Vuai, Zanab's co-ordinator, said financial support was crucial. "We train people in handicrafts so that they can earn a living.

But there is a big demand also for training on our computers. We opened our computer room in 2005 with the help of Sightsavers and they also helped us to buy our laptops. "

Rehema Ali is one beneficiary. At the age of 24, she was training to be a teacher but a misdiagnosed eye infection led to her almost totally losing her sight. She now uses a Dolphin Pen - a lightweight device that reads and magnifies on-screen information - to help her continue her studies. One day, she hopes to resume her career. "I was in despair when my vision failed, " she said. "I thought my life was over but this has really given me new hope."

Both Said and Rehema live on an island of one million people best known for its ancient connections to the spice trade and its stunning tropical beaches, now lined by five-star resorts for wealthy tourists. But you do not have to scratch far underneath the surface to find the range of eye care problems common to many African countries.

Cataracts, still the biggest cause of preventable blindness in the world, is a common problem, which is treated at the newly-refurbished eyecare department at Stone Town's MMH hospital.

Cataracts is a condition in which the lens of the eye goes cloudy, leaving the victim unable to see. Yet although it can be treated by a relatively simple sight-restoring operation - costing just 17 for adults and 27 for children - funds are short for the surgeons and anaesthetists required to deal with the volume of cases.

Dr Abdulla Sadalla, the director of hospital services at MMH, said: "We used to be told that eye care services were unimportant even though cataracts is the main cause of preventable blindness in the country. Now, fortunately, the position is improving thanks to organisations like Sightsavers."