Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. The Koidu’s School for blind, has emerged as the winner of the first edition of the Bible Quiz competition organised by the Bible Society of Sierra Leone for the visually impaired.
The five schools that participated are the Milton Margai School for the Blind, Koidu School for the Blind, Bombali School for the Blind, Paul School Bo for the Blind and Kabala School for the blind.
In the keenly competition that took place at the Cathedral House in Freetown, On Sunday 12th June, 2022, John Kemoh and team from Koidu School for blind put their school in the lead by winning the competition with 39 point in total.
At the event, the Chief Host and General Secretary, Bible Society of Sierra Leone, Christiana Agimalaye Jones, remarked that the competition could not hold last year because of COVID-19 restrictions.
She stated how impressed she was by the performance of the pupils and therefore charged government to encourage the visually impaired, who by their performance at the competition, had shown that there is ability in disability.
“I know that there are lots of things the government is doing, a lot of battle it is fighting to make things work. But I make bold to say that if the government can spend the money it is spending to quell terrorism on these children to give them education, the nation would be better for it and the best way to do that is to catch them young by engaging them in the study of the scriptures. Some of them are prospective lawyers and their ambition should not be thwarted because of their disability as we are sure this step will lead to new generation of God fearing citizens. We call on the government to rise up to the challenge while Sierra Leone is enjoined to keep on supporting this project with their donations,” she said.
She said Bible Society has a mandate to provide scriptures for every man, woman and child in a format which each can readily use and understand, and it was in that vein that two years ago they provided brail bible for all the blind schools in the country.
She said brail bible is very expensive but they have to do it and that they realize that they have been left out. She further that when they were trying to buy the brail bible they were facing a lot of challenges, but that they were able to get a donor that help them in securing brail bible for the pupil.
She said they have various prices for all the participants that took part in the competition, and that Koidu School for the Blind will take home three million Leones, second position Bombali take home two million Leone and the third position Milton Margai School for the Blind received one million Leones.
John Kemoh , Koidu School for blind, said winning the competition has transformed him from grass to grace, and that he was very happy that he had helped his school for winning the first ever bible quiz competition.
He disclosed that he is an orphan but that does mean he cannot be educated and sent a word of encouragement to all blind people that, being blind does not mean one cannot work, because God has better things ahead of everybody.
Adeyemi Sandi, Chairman, Bible Society, said the cost of producing braille is very expensive and are therefore expected to donate generously to the BSSL towards the course of producing more braille Bibles.
He thanked the various schools for releasing their students as he also appreciated the parents for believing in the future of their children by sending them to school. He further stated that he was very impressed by the performance of the students.
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