Stealing from the blind; visually impaired mad over burglary

The Belize Council for the Visually Impaired recently lost its Gabourel Lane Office in a fire that is suspected to have been arson and now they’ve suffered another hit. “Stealing from blind children” is how the B.C.V.I. is describing a break-in at their office on the lower flat of the Red Cross Building. Equipment and teaching materials that were left in a storage room were stolen over the weekend, but the B.C.V.I. was only alerted about the burglary on Tuesday. Today they are asking for the return of the stolen items, which have no value on the streets but are of great importance for educating visually impaired children. Liza Williams, B.C.V.I.’s Regional Field Officer told News Five it’s a senseless crime.

Liza Williams, Regional Field Officer, B.C.V.I.

“We had lost our Braille embosser machine, Braille text books, scrubbing board, bath pan, wash bins and printing material books for the visually impaired children.”

Delahnie Bain

“How important were these items to B.C.V.I. and the programs that you all have?”

Liza Williams

Liza Williams

“Very important because the embosser, we had bought that from the states. It’s of no use to the public. It’s of vital importance to the visually impaired clients. What happen that piece of equipment is what we used to translate the print version of the textbooks into Braille versions for the blind children so that they can do their school work. At this time we can’t do any production of books since we don’t have the Braille embosser.”

Delahnie Bain

“And something like that would be difficult to replace?”

Liza Williams

“Very difficult because the cost of that is like ten thousand Belize dollars.”

Delahnie Bain

“And the other items were used for the kids…”

Liza Williams

“We used the other items especially for the summer camp. Those are the stuff that we use to help do our training for our summer camp that we have yearly.”

Delahnie Bain

“So do you think that this is just mischief; to take things that they really don’t have use for?”

Liza Williams

“I think so because especially the embosser, they don’t have any use for the embosser. It is a big equipment, it might seem of value but not to them; it’s for visually impaired children.”

Persons with information that assist B.C.V.I. to recover its equipment are asked to call 203-5206.