Windhoek
Namibian Federation of the Visually Impaired (NFVI) executive director Moses Nghipandulwa has called on local businesses and companies to support NFVI to ensure continuity of its activities after Finland reduced its funding to the federation for the visually impaired.
The Finnish government this year reduced its funding to NFVI, which it benefited from for many years and this has negatively affected the organisation’s budget. It resulted in NFVI officially closing its doors at the end of April.
Only Nghipandulwa’s office is open, where he coordinates and attends meetings. He reiterated that they are still waiting for government to respond through the Office of the Deputy Minister for Disability Affairs, Alexia Manombe-Ncube after she had an audience with them.
“We’re not just focusing on government, we’re trying to knock here and there, approaching stakeholders and individuals so that they support the federation in order to bring back activities that we have been doing,” he said.
According to Nghipandulwa, businesses and stakeholders can assist and not just in monetary form, but also by buying services from the federation, for example, typing documents into braille. He added that companies and individuals can also send their staff and families to attend orientation training, which they have to pay for.
Nevertheless, he said this is a short-term solution to generate income, but the long lasting solution would be for central government to step in. Nghipandulwa further said as a result of the federation closing they did not have any intake this year.
Typically students and visually impaired people would undergo rehabilitation training, which equips visually impaired people with mobility, braille reading skills, daily living and computer training.
For this reason, Nghipandulwa hopes the government responds before August, prior to their second intake, which runs from August to December.
The federation was established in 1986 and has over 15 000 registered members in all 14 regions. The FFVI has been their main donor since 1986 providing 85 percent of financial support, which paid salaries, administrative costs, municipal bills and for NFVI events, like the White Cane Day, amongst others.
The Namibian government through the Ministry of Health and Social Services provided 15 percent of the financial support so that the federation was able to buy assistive devices and pay registration fees to affiliate to the African and World Blind Unions.