The TY Danjuma Foundation has again put smiles on the faces of the visually impaired after a? week training workshop on Braille, mobility and chess game for the blind which ended in Abuja at the weekend.
Speaking with journalists at the event, Programmes Manager of the Foundation, Margaret Yau said: ”For us our mandate is to bring good services to the downtrodden and neglected and we know that disability is something that is shun in this country, that even the government does not bring out projects that will address these problems.”
She said that when the TY Danjuma Foundation was set up,” the first and foremost thing was to get to the people that are not reached. If you look at most of the projects that the foundation is implementing, you will see that it is in the rural areas, and not in the cities, this is because people do not get to these areas, even the NGOs, so that is one of the mandates of the foundation to get to areas where others do not go.”
TY Danjuma Foundation at the end of the workshop presented Perkins Braille Machines, Braille Primers (Print copies) Braille Primers (Braille)Chess sets, Guide canes and Slates and styluses among others to the participants.
Meanwhile, at the end of the workshop, a 10-point communiqué read by National Coordinator? ANGLO-Nigerian Welfare Association for the Blind (ANWAB), Bashar Danlami urged the federal government to through the Federal Road Safety Commission(FRSC)? give the white cane a pride of place in the highway code in order to sensitise the public on its importance to the blind; create roads and buildings that are disability friendly; remove environmental barriers and construct audible signposts at junctions as obtained in developed countries.
The communiqué also urged the government and other public spirited individuals to provide sporting equipments for the disabled, subsidise and remove all customs duties on leisure and educational materials and also provide Braille textbooks for the blind.
Participants also called on the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to provide further training for blind students and teachers with a view to ensuring sustainability and also urged the National Assembly to expedite action in passing the National Disability Bill as well as urged the President to assent to it when it gets to him so that the disabled especially the blind can be given a sense of belonging.