The Helen Keller Centre (helenkellerschool.org) is a special needs school for children with visual impairment located in Israeli-controlled East Jerusalem. The school is the only school for Arab-speaking children with visual impairment serving Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. There is no equivalent provision for visually-impaired children in the occupied Palestinian territory. Almost a quarter of the children are totally blind, while the remainder have low vision, often with additional disabilities such as learning difficulties or attention deficit disorder. A key part of the school is to serve visually-impaired children in the surrounding areas of the West Bank, particularly the Ramallah and Bethlehem districts, and refugee camps, for whom there is no provision and no funding.

I am raising money to help buy a new minibus. At present 15 out of 62 children, many of them as young as three years old, live in the West Bank and travel through Israeli checkpoints to be at the school by 7.30am. The student’s days are very long, up to nine hours, given the distances to be covered and checkpoint delays.The Helen Keller Centre wishes to purchase a 20-seat mini-bus, which would make the collection and dropping off of young children in the West Bank much easier.

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