LÜDERITZ – The Service Centre for the Visually Impaired last week organised a community outreach programme and shared information with the visually impaired, among them children.
Valentina Emvula Oherein, the community involvement instructor, said the aim was to raise awareness in the community to reach out to visually impaired children and adults.
It was also meant to help to open doors for the visually impaired so that – like other Namibian citizens – they can also move freely in society.
Oherein said her organisation wants to reach visually impaired children and adults to ensure they are registered and sent to special schools possibly for vocational training.
She emphasised the mandate of the service centre as reaching out to as many people as possible, especially those located in the central and southern parts of Namibia.
Community involvement, she explained, meant training family members, friends and community assistant workers to assist and guide visually impaired people.
Oherein said her organisation visited Gibeon, Tses and Lüderitz. The trip was organised with constituency councillors who listed all the visually impaired in their respective constituencies.
She said many visually impaired people are still in a bad condition despite receiving a government grant, as they live alone without any assistance in their homes.
She said they want all the visually impaired, especially children, to be registered so that they can attend special schools in the country, while those from the ages of 15 until 50 years could go for rehabilitation at the service centre for four months.
Alternatively, Oherein explained, they could inform the centre, so that officials visit them and give the training needed in their homes with their families on how to use the white cane.
“We have to make sure that people are trained in the community, and after training there will be a follow-up to see how they cope and give further assistance if needed,” said Oherein.