World Sight Day, Oct. 13
The Pattaya School for the Blind is this year celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary. For a quarter of a century the school has welcomed children with varying degrees of visual impairment and has provided them with an education.
The school follows the same national curriculum that all schools teach, but there are additional classes where the children learn the skills and the knowledge that they will need to be able to live an independent life.
Goalball. A popular sport amongst the blind students.
From an early age the young students are taught to use a white cane, this will make it easier getting from A to B. As they grow older they learn to take care of themselves; learning to launder their clothes, to cook and plant fruits and vegetables.
Sport and physical education is also part of the students’ daily schedule. The recent Paralympic Games has shown the world that people living varying degrees of visual impairment can participate in a variety of sports. Blind sprinters breaking world records and running a 100m sprint in less than eleven seconds is an astonishing feat.
Participants in the 2012 Pattaya Marathon.
At the London Games the world was introduced to the sport of goalball and futsol for the blind. Watching the futsol players wearing blindfolds, dribbling the ball and scoring goals was an amazing sight. The students at the Pattaya campus have been playing these sports for many years, as well as swimming, athletics, volleyball and table tennis.
This year Thursday the 11th of October will be known the world over as World Sight Day. It is a day to raise awareness and recognize the abilities and achievements of people living with blindness and visual impairment.
The generosity shown by the people of Pattaya has ensured that for twenty five years young blind children have arrived at the school and upon graduation they have the ability to live an independent life.
With the support of the people of Pattaya the School for the Blind hopes to continue educating blind and visually impaired students for at least another twenty five years.
More information can be found at www.fr-ray.org or email [email protected]
Aurora Sribuapun, principal of the school, with some of her younger students.
The blind students pay respects on Teachers Day.
Learning to swim.
Music lessons are part of the schools curriculum.
