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| Mrs Alshaymaa Kwegyir |
SPECIAL
Seats Member of Parliament, Mrs Alshaymaa Kwegyir, has said that educating
people with disabilities in the country is a viable investment that will help
in national development.
Mrs.
Kwegyir made the comments when closing 14-day assistive technology training for
people with visual impairment at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) that was
sponsored by Sightsavers Tanzania.
She
said that providing people with disabilities proper education will make them
independent and be able to support themselves and their families.
"By
giving people with disabilities handouts it only makes them dependent and
appear like a burden to society but if we invest in educating them then we will
be making progress in efforts to bring development to our country," she
said.
Speaking
at the same occasion, Sightsavers Tanzania Project Manager, Mr Enock Mangasini,
said that the training this year follows a similar session last year where 15
people with visual impairment were trained on how to use Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) assistive technology.
He
said that it is heartening to see that this year 27 people were able to receive
the training, noting that even more promising is the fact the trainers this
year were those who themselves graduated in last year's training.
"This
is promising and we hope that those who benefitted from this year's programme
will go and spread the knowledge acquired far and wide," he said. Mr
Mangasini was speaking on behalf of Sightsavers Tanzania Director, Dr Ibrahim
Kabole.
Sightsavers
plans to train between 200 and 300 people with visual disabilities to be able
use computers in the next four years. The not-for-profit organisation has
pledged to continue supporting people with visual impairmant by financing and
providing equipment for three resource centers at Makalala Primary School in
Mafinga, Iringa region, OUT and Tanzania League for the Blind (TLB) premises.
Graduates
of the training programme were also handed with laptops fitted with assistive
technology that best suit their needs as people with visual impairment.
Sightsavers promised to continue supporting similar training and called for
other stakeholders to support the initiative.
OUT
Vice Chancellor, Prof Tolly Mbwette, said that the training and that
of last year have been an eye opener to many individuals that ICT is possible
for visually impaired individuals. "I am calling upon both national and
international organisations to facilitate training like this one.
"Training
like this have far reaching implications as they keep disability and persons
with disabilities high on the agenda," he said.
In
a speech read on his behalf by the OUT Deputy Vice Chancellor (Personnel), Prof
Martin Victor, said such training helps society widen knowledge and
understanding of disabilities and persons with disabilities in both training
and using ICT services as well as get rid of stigmatization and negative
attitudes towards people with disabilities. The training was also supported by
Tanzania Education Authority, OUT, TLB and Freedom Electronics dealers of
Samsung products in the country.
Daily News Tanzania