People to People, Norfolk to Mekele
Sometimes It Takes a Village
By Dorothy S. Pam
Chris Hanley, in the Mekele Teacher Training School, with students Baraki, Tesfay and Mitiku.
Chris Hanley has a mission. Known locally as a young woman with strong family and community ties, she is now dedicating herself to making life better for a small group of blind students half way around the world in Ethiopia. And she has drawn her family, friends, and community into the project through her idealism and enthusiasm. The irony here is that the students she has “adopted” will never be able to see the world of color and creativity that is her language as an art educator. In January, Norfolkians are invited to learn more about the cultural exchange project and the Mekele Blind School. Hanley will share her students’ art and slides and slides of her visit on January 3rd at the Norfolk Lions Club, and again on January 13th at the Norfolk Library.
Hanley came to Litchfield County in 1976 as an art student at Northwestern Connecticut Community College. After earning her BA in Fine Arts in Northridge, CA, she started a business as a porcelain renovator, which gave her freedom to indulge her love of travel. She worked as a crew member on a fishing boat in Mexico, camped and hiked throughout the US and Europe. She met her husband Richard at his family’s hostel in Ireland.
Hanley got her MA in Art Education in 1988 from Southern Connecticut State University and began teaching part time in Ashley Falls while raising daughters Lily and Georgia. With Anna Dolan, a Central Connecticut State University professor, who had previously taken groups of students to Ethiopia through Project Troubadour of Salisbury, Hanley devised a project whereby American and Ethiopian students would make and exchange triptychs, which are central to Ethiopian art. Armed with the art work of 300 Litchfield County school children and several suitcases of art supplies, the small group visited and did workshops in a number of schools in Tigre province.
While in Mekele a chance remark by an Ethiopian teacher, “You must meet my friend Negisti” led Hanley to the Blind School in Mekele. Negisti, a blind Ethiopian woman who taught English at the local teacher-training school, led them to a town of crumbling brick. The dirt yard, littered with sharp rocks and stumps, contained four 12 by 24 foot dorms for 86 boys and girls, 7 to 15 years old. The long, dreary days were punctuated by sporadic teaching, one meal a day of enjira, and games played with a ball made of tied plastic bags. There were no Braille books or games. Much of the day children spent lying on their bunks. Hanley felt she had to make a difference in their lives.
Since returning to Norfolk, Hanley has organized a group of Norfolk women and men to help in the task of improving the school conditions of for these children. The first task, already underway thanks to a gift from Marie Lowe, has cleared the school grounds of dangerous obstacles, allowing students to walk, run, and play safely. Collapsible walking sticks have been requested to aid students’ mobility. Completing the Other projects include completion of a stone wall around the dorms and fencing in the compound as well as hiring more guards and two women to sleep in the girl’s dorm at night, will to discourage thieves and sexual predators, who have troubled the children in the past.
Another trip is planned for June, at which time donated Braille books, special Braille board games and toys will be brought to the school. The group will also build shelves and set up a library. Plans are also underway to raise funds to buy each student a fresh mattress, waterproof mattress pad, pillow, and sheet sack. Recently, metal lockers were made in Mekele to be equipped with Braille padlocks where students can keep their clothes and shoes.
Throughout the Region 1 school district, children are becoming pen pals with Mekele children and creating and selling crafts to raise money for balls with bells inside them, so students can hear where the ball is. Other students are collecting used sunglasses which “normalize” the blind students. Perhaps some children can donate small musical instruments no longer in use, such as recorders.
Donations of goods can be made through Chris Hanley at 542-5851; donations of money should be made through the Missions account at Norfolk’s Church of Christ, Congregational where donations are tax deductible.
To view the group’s web site, go to Mekeleblindschool.org. Anyone who would like to pick out a Braille book, toy, or game for the blind, can do so at Futureaids.com or Independantliving.com.
Photo courtesy of Chris Hanley.
