What does the first touch of snow feel like to a student from Africa?

Francis turns his face upward and one by one drifting snowflakes alight on his cheek, his nose, his chin. Not so unusual for a Pittsburgh winter, but a remarkable experience for Francis, a student from Uganda, who, for the first time, is feeling the kiss of snowflakes that he cannot see.

Francis lost his vision due to complications from measles when he was a child. Scarring from measles is a leading cause of blindness in under-developed countries, according to the World Health Organization. Africa is home to an estimated 300,000 blind children. So prolific is measles that one Uganda tribe named it Akwap, or ‘disease of the wind.’

Today Francis sees only shadows. In Africa, he earned a bachelor’s degree in education and taught history and religious studies. This year he was one of 12 students out of 4,000 who earned a Ford Foundation scholarship to study in the United States. Francis enrolled in the Vision Studies program at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Education. After his studies are complete, he wants to return to his home country to help others who are blind and vision impaired.

“I dream to set up a center where they who want jobs, they who want skills, they who want training, they who want to learn, will come and a blind man will help them,” he said.

But first, Francis is learning independence-building techniques at BVRS. He is learning to use adaptive computers and learning to use a white cane through orientation and mobility classes so he will be prepared for life and studies at Pitt.

During a break between classes at BVRS, someone told Francis it was snowing. He sprinted outside, turned his face upward and grinned as snowflakes began to land. Until then his face had only known rain and the sting of hail. How does it feel, someone accustomed to winter wanted to know, to touch snow for the first time?

“It feels soft. It feels light and cold,” he said. “Very, very cold.”