Greater London Fund for the Blind
Improving the lives of blind people

Recreation

Children enjoying an Extant workshopHaving a visual impairment doesn’t mean that you can’t still enjoy life and your donations help GLFB fund a number of art, sport and recreational activities.·These give people the chance to do ‘normal’ things like going to the theatre, playing sport or visiting a museum.

Maria Oshodi is the Artistic Director at Extant. They run performing arts classes and performances for visually impaired children.

She explains how one boy benefitted from a recent workshop in partnership with the Wallace Collection:·

‘The Wallace Collection has some really classic old paintings, like the Laughing Cavalier, and they give·lectures on the paintings.

‘We thought the kids would take nothing in at all – they were all between about 11 and 13 – but afterwards we quizzed them and they’d retained so much information it was incredible.

‘Then they had to recreate these scenes from the paintings, and it was fantastic. Within that we got them to bring in more description, and they were getting a sense of working outside themselves.

‘Bringing in the element of description – because it feels slightly awkward – constantly reminds the actors that there are people watching.

‘There was one boy who was slightly autistic, in a group we did in Sutton. He was a very good actor buthe was little bit remote. A woman who came to video the end of term presentation was a film maker herself and she was looking to cast someone to play the part of a visually impaired boy in a film she was making in Sicily. She took him to Sicily, made this short film, and he did really well and had a fantastic time.

‘When he came back, I asked him what he was going to do, and he said “Become a policeman”. And although I’d kind of hoped he’d say he was going to drama school or become an actor, I then actually thought, well if it’s given him the confidence to be a policeman, that’s great. His mother also told us he’d really changed after having come to our workshops.’

Services that your donations have helped to fund:·

Monthly trips for visually impaired people in Greenwich. These have included a tour of the Natural History Museum featuring talks, live animal handling and tangible exhibits; a ‘Discovering London’s Waterways’ tour on an accessible boat with tangible and edible exhibits demonstrating the rich history of the waterways.

A grant to British Blind Sport to run blind football coaching sessions and tournaments. The aim is to help more adults and youth players to enjoy playing football and benefitting from the exercise,camaraderie and team spirit it creates.·

Funding towards detailed workshops on three iconic London buildings for visually impaired people. Run by VocalEyes, these workshop use models and descriptions of concepts behind the building to provide stimulating and interesting tours.

Charity Profile: Ext…
In the second part of our interview with Extant Creative Director Maria Oshodi (part one is here) , she explains a bit more about some of their recent projects. What have…
Charity Profile: Ext…
In the past the Greater London Fund for the Blind has funded a number of projects for performing arts charity, Extant. For the last few years,Extant have performed at the London…