Beyan Kota, left, and Larissa Chee walk though the streets of Alamogordo, N. M., so he can take the training skills he learns back to Liberia.
From The Las Cruces, N.M., Sun August 4:
Fatu and Beyan Kota are learning to cook, to walk and to manage their lives.
For almost three weeks, the Kotas are guests at the New Mexico Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (NMCBI), participating in the classes the organization has to offer.
But Beyan and Fatu are not just more clients of the NMCBI. Beyan is an important and influential man in his own country. What the couple is learning here in Alamogordo will be taken home to the west African country of Liberia, where they are educators and activists on behalf of the blind and otherwise disabled.
The Kotas are well equipped to cook, walk and manage their lives already. Fatu is not blind but is learning skills to help her own students in Liberia.
Beyan Kota is blind and his classes here are teaching him techniques he can take home for his people to help them become independent.
In Liberia, a country reeling from 14 years of war which ended in 2003, about 3.5 percent (76,000 people) of the population is blind. Before the war, there were about 20,000.
As war destroyed the infrastructure of the country, Kota said, incidents of blindness increased with the lack of medical care and proliferation of "river blindness," which causes blindness but is easily cured with medication. The medication was unavailable for many years.
"Also, when you are not getting the right food, that can have a disabling effect on an individual life," Kota said. "Explosions too caused a lot of disability."
Measles, rodent infestations and cholera also were rampant during the war.
Kota is the president of the Liberian National Union of Organizations of the Disabled and of the Liberia Christian Association of the Blind. He is well known in his country as an advocate for the blind and disabled.
"He (Kota) is truly changing the environment for blind people in Liberia," said Juan Haro, NMCBI deputy director.
"Your society is much more conscious of the need to take care of its people," Kota said, impressed with the Supplemental Security Income program which allows disabled people in the United States to live on their own.
He said one of the things he will be implementing directly as he gets home is an industrial arts class for his students. He also said he likes the home and personal management classes at NMCBI as a strong believer in empowering people to be self sufficient.
