Skip to main content
Group photo of approximately 30 people of diverse backgrounds, smiling and posing indoors in a brightly lit room with colorful and varied clothing, set against a yellow and white classroom environment.

Children of Mayotte

Last June, The Braille Program travelled to Mayotte to train professionals in teaching braille. For a variety of reasons, many blind and visually impaired children live on this island, which was devastated by Cyclone Chido. The schools in Mayotte wanted to train as many professionals as possible to serve children. 150 highly motivated adults attended the training, out of an official population of 320,000.

There are no specialist teachers in Mayotte, so the National Education officials seized the opportunity offered by the LEGO Braille Bricks to train teachers, teaching assistants, head teachers and educational counsellors.

We met a number of students at the school, including illegal immigrants.

At the moment, contact is very difficult. We have no news of the children, whose future seems even more clouded by these dramatic events.

Our thoughts are with them, their families and all those who are with them and supporting them.

The archipelago of Mayotte is a French department in the Indian Ocean. Many Comorians from the neighbouring archipelago seek refuge there, driven out by poverty.