THE Ilkley Gazette Talking Newspaper, which has been recording for blind and partially sighted residents of Ilkley for over 30 years, has thrown open the doors of its Abbeyfield studio to record audio textbooks for blind and visually impaired high school students in Mekelle, Ethiopia.

Mekelle is the capital city of Tigray, the northern most province in Ethiopia, and enrols around 150 blind students in its mainstream high schools. Although all of these children are trained in braille, there are very few braille textbooks available as they cost a lot to produce and are bulky to carry around.

The best alternative is an audio textbook on an MP3 memory stick that goes into the USB port of a radio or a memory card that sticks into a pair of earphones. Users can track forward and backward, to listen again and move on, to quickly find the chapter and section they want, of the “talking textbook”.

Now an Ilkley project to record the text books for the students is being supported by the British registered charity, Special Educational Needs:Ethiopia. SEN:Ethiopia was founded by a group of British Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) teachers in 2005.

During their work in main stream education the VSOs stumbled onto the Mekelle Boarding School for the Blind. They found the children there were living in very poor conditions and with little educational opportunity.

Since those early days the returned VSOs set up a network of trustees and friends throughout the UK and have continued to provide needed resources for the School and the children. Members with professional expertise from braille teachers to water engineers go back to Mekelle on a scheduled basis.

Gary Knamiller, of Ilkley, who worked as a VSO teacher in Ethiopia from 2003 to 2006, alongside his wife Chris, has got the town of Ilkley involved with the project.

He said: "What makes it possible for us here in Ilkley to be textbook readers for Ethiopian kids is that the medium of instruction from grades 9 to 12, and on through university, is English.

"Last November we trialled our audio recordings of grade 9 Biology and Civics with the children in Mekelle. They loved them. Not only did they find it easy to navigate the texts, they liked the added bonus of “being taught” by native English speakers.

"Christchurch here in Ilkley has been a big supporter of the work of SEN:Ethiopia raising funds and most recently engaging this audio textbook project. Steve Amos, a sound engineer at Ilkley Gazette Talking Newspaper for over 25 years, together with readers, Professor Mike Dixon and myself, all of Christchurch Ilkley, and Helen Papworth, a former VSO in Ethiopia are now completing the readings for all grades in Biology and Civics.

"The man on the ground in Mekelle who is managing the project is Masho Kidemariam, the director of SEN:Tigray, the operational arm of SEN:Ethiopia. Masho is a wonderfully dynamic personality, blind himself, a graduate of the Mekelle Boarding School for the Blind and holder of a Master’s degree in Law from Addis Ababa University. He summed up the students’ comments when they tried our sample audio material last November saying 'It’s wonderful to carry your textbook in a stick, to be able to study anywhere, anytime. A big thanks to all of you at Ilkley Gazette Talking Newspaper',"

If you would like to help with this project, £20 will buy a set of headphones, £10 will buy a radio and £10 will buy a good memory stick.

To find out more visit www.sene.org.uk and look for the March 2015 newsletter or contact Gary by email at:garyknamiller@yahoo.co.uk or call 01943 430634.