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 During 1932 a group of students of the Athlone School for the Blind including Mr Isaac Jacobs, a blind young adult, toured the country in an effort to raise funds and publicise the work of the school.
On the historic return journey from the North the seed of the League of Friends of the Blind began to germinate in the imaginative and creative mind of young Isaac Jacobs. There was so much interest in and appreciation of, the work that was being done for blind people who were not white, on the part of the public that these FRIENDS OF THE BLIND could not be callously swept aside and relegated to oblivion. An organisation had to be brought into being, where these friends could give expression to their aspirations of serving the interests of blind people.
On 9 December 1932 a meeting took place in the Zuid Afrikaanse Gesticht Hall in Cape Town under the chairmanship of Mr S Reagon, M.P.C. The object of the meeting was to lay the foundation for the establishment of a League of Friends of the Blind as well as the drafting of a Constitution. A committee of thirteen persons was elected: viz.
Misses E Jephta, V Volkwyn, F January, Daniels; Mesdames Lotter, Jacobus, Engel;
Messrs H Hertzog, W Vernicker, Martin, V Pukwana, E Ramsdale and I Jacobs.
On 7 January 1933 this interim committee met in the A.P.O. Offices, Long Street, Cape Town, under the chairmanship of Mr I J Jacobs and E Ramsdale as joint secretaries.
The organisation originally regarded as its sole and exclusive object, the raising of funds in support of the Athlone School for the Blind. Whenever, in those early years, the League appeared in public, it invariably involved pupils of the Athlone School at such public appearances, through the medium of demonstrations, concerts, etc., which usually proved extremely popular with audiences everywhere.
As far as can be established, the first public gathering of the League took place on 18 April 1933. This appearance of the League was part of the Annual General Meeting of the Athlone School for the Blind. The second part of this meeting consisted of a concert, followed by speeches by Messrs I J Jacobs, E F Doman, R W Bowen M.P. and the Archbishop of Cape Town. Occasions such as the one discussed here, were usually utilised to advertise the activities and aims of LOFOB to audiences and to extend invitations to members of the public to join the organisation.
Branches of LOFOB existed in the Cape Peninsula, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Uitenhage, Korsten, Port Elizabeth.
In the Cape, particularly in the Cape Peninsula, the League went ahead with its Information Meetings, organising concerts and demonstrations. On Friday, 9 June 1933 a meeting was held in the Wynberg Town Hall. This meeting was so well attended that the hall was soon packed to capacity, and many had to turn back owing to lack of accommodation.
After an inspiring address by Mr I J Jacobs among others, 280 persons joined the League that evening and a silver collection yielded the magnificent sum of nearly £16.
The inaugural year of the League was crowned with great success. The 1933 Annual Report of the Athlone School for the Blind could mention with gratitude “that hundreds of people throughout the Union were member of its auxiliary organisation, the League of Friends of the Blind”. Financially things were also going well with the League, in fact, so well that the sum of £90 could be handed to the Athlone School, for additions to its hostel.
On 6 February 1934, the League of Friends of the Blind held its first Annual General Meeting in the Vestry of English Church House, Cape Town, under the chairmanship of Mr E F Doman. It was with no small measure of satisfaction and gratitude that Mr E Ramsdale, joint secretary, was able to present the first annual report.
The report referred, inter alia, to the reason for the establishment of the League, the year previously. The primary reason, said the report, was the inalienable right of all to an equal education. Furthermore, the report mentioned the number of branches established during the previous year, namely the Head Office in Cape Town, Kimberley, two branches in Johannesburg, Wynberg, two branches in Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Langa. The total membership of the organisation approximated 700.
This was truly a year of which the League felt justly proud – a year in which it came to the realisation that it has a task to fulfil and an important role to play in the lives of blind people.
Bequests for designated purposes may provide for expenditure of capital or for the establishment of an endowment fund of which only the income may be used for the purposes chosen.
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