Social Inculsion Workshop in West Africa : 17th to 19th May, 2010

By Praveen Kumar

pkumar@sightsavers.org

As part of my interest in the Social Inclusion Theme and need of the partners a workshop design was developed and a 3 day workshop on Social Inclusion of PWDs was conducted at Bhubneshwar in January, 2009. This workshop design was later considered as a global template for Sightsavers and thus the workshop was replicated in Bangladesh for the country office team and in Mumbai for ECSA and India region staff.

My visit to Dakar was planned with an objective of supporting Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame (Asia- Africa Social Inclusion Advisor) in conducting a similar workshop in Dakar (Senegal), for the staff of West Africa (East and West) regions.

The three days workshop in Dakar from 17th to 19th May 2010 had about 50 participants from all departments including finance and admin of WARO East and West regions. It was organized as a part of WARO Regional Meeting. Though initially, Gertrude and I thought that the number of participants was a bit high and will be difficult to manage, to our surprise the workshop was one of the best and the most participative one which we had ever attended/conducted. It also gave me an opportunity to have a broader view of Sightsavers programmes on Social Inclusion across Africa through the discussion during the workshop.

Quoting Elizabeth Elhassan (Regional Director – WARO West ) and Benedict Hoefnegals (Regional Director – WARO East), this was one of the best regional meetings they have attended since joining Sightsavers, packed with vital learning which could be immediately linked and applied to programmes and practice.

The focus of the workshop was mainly on the twin track approach and on using the CBR matrix while planning the social inclusion programmes. Following are the action points drafted by the Regional Directors after the workshop.

Action Points:

- Country Office (CO) and Regional Office (RO) teams to review the Social Inclusion and Education sections of strategy papers to reflect learning from the training – alongside PITEC feedback on country / region strategy papers (CSP/ RSP).
- CO and RO teams to review their Project/Programme portfolio and align it with the strategic framework and Sightsavers programme approaches.
- CO and RO teams to review accompanying operational plans for Education and Social Inclusion areas of work, and submit to the regional office, Diane Mulligan & Gertrude for feedback, by the end of July. Note that all CSPs & Operational Plans should reflect the Twin – Track approach.

The visit to Senegal had also given me an opportunity to be nominated to the Guinness Book of World Records as the airlines missed my luggage during the onward as well as return journey. But it seems there are people who have missed it several times during their journey to Africa.
One learning, I would like to pass on to my colleagues who may travel to Africa is just carry one suitcase as hand baggage so that you have lesser chances of missing your checked in baggage.

Postcards from Kenya and Tanzania

By Shweta Chooramani
schooramani@sightsavers.org

Warm smiling faces welcome you on Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi. The airport is named after their first president, also known as the founder of Kenya. A smile can do wonders while you are in Africa !

Kenya Country Office (Nairobi) in the premises of Barclays House. The building was disabled friendly. Even inside the building requisite ramps and supports were installed.

The integrated education model of ECSA region. The entire model is delivered by the government schools. ECSA support resource rooms, braille library, assistive devices and training of school teachers. Sightsavers implement this project in partnership with Ministry of Education.I visited five government education facilities namely Menengai primary school, Nakuru boy’s high school, Kilimani primary school, Makalala primary school and Kisiwandui primary school.

The braille library at Kilimary Primary School, Nairobi supported by Sightsavers through their partner ABC (Africa Braille Centre). Incidentally, ABC and Sightsavers share same office building.

Resource room for visually impaired children at Kilimary Primary School, Nairobi supported by Sightsavers. The children coming to these government schools were from low socio economic background. Education in private schools were found to be very expensive in ECSA. The project was first piloted in few district of Kenya during 1990s, results were demonstrated to government and then scaled up through integration within the govt. education system, reaching close to 700 visually impaired children.

Resource centre for visually impaired children at Menengai Primary School, Nakuru district of Kenya. The district was primarily rural, still the resource room was utilized with presence of a range of teaching and learning materials. For advocacy purpose at policy level, a research study was undertaken by KCO on the cost allocation per visually impaired children in Kenya. The study suggested, the amount allocated by the government needs to increased from current level of USD 10 per child per year to USD 25.

Resource room for deaf blind children at Kilimani Primary School, supported by Sense International. The convergence of development agencies within the government facility to avoid duplication of resources is encouraged by Ministry of Education.

Children greeting with "namaste" at Makalala Primary School, Tanzania. Though in very rural and interior part of Mufindi district the enrolment of visually impaired children was encouraging. However, the subtle message on discrimination was conveyed due to disntictive uniform ( green sweaters for PWD). To my dismay, I was told that 'Albinism' is considered as a taboo and disability in rural parts of Tanzania. This goes to the extent of killing albino children as they were believed to bring curse to the family.

This is a picture of vision centre being run at Unguja at Zanzibaar. The medical team from Sightsavers supported Mnazi Mmoja Government Hospital organize camps while the facility was constructed by the community. Sightsavers and Ministry of Health jointly implement eyecare programmes which were primarily focussed on Trachoma and Onchocerciasis.

This picture was clicked while going through country side of Nakuru district. Making public buildings accessible was pushed by KCO as one of the advocacy agenda. A circular was sent to all the public buildings based on UNCRPD to make the facilities disabled friendly within one year, else their name would be printed in newspaper under "hall of shame" ! And guess what, it was working there !

CD has a collection of songs sung by PWD selected by Sigthsavers ECSA regional office. The music is called "Taarab" as its influenced from Arabic countries which ruled most parts of East Africa for trading slaves.

At the backside of Barclay's House, there was office of Kenya Institute for the Blind (KIB)supported by government for braille books production. While going back to hotel, seen these well dressed confident gentlemen waiting to cross the road, who speaks volume about the empowerment and employement of blind persons within BPOs/DPOs.

Presenting here Sylvester Sattu, the avid lover of Indian cuisine specially chicken makhanwala at Khana Khazana restaurant, Dar-Es-Salaaam. Bhajias and samosas were the first option for snacks available anywhere anytime.

Group of Masaai, ethnic tribe of Kenya and Tanzania. On weekend, me and Mary Muturi (Programme Officer - KCO) went to Nairobil National Park safari where the group danced with the visitors before parting away. The tourism industry in Kenya is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue after agriculture.

Zanzibar also known as "spice isalnd" is famous for its serene beaches, international dhow festival, taarab music and UNESCO world heritage sight listed stone town.

One of most beautiful sight which I had come across while returning back to Nairobi from Dar-E-Salaam at the end of my trip. The marvelous sky view of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

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The Travel and Living channel keeps on flashing this quote by St. Augustine, could relate to it after the end of those three weeks !

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

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Blind Chase Heritage Car Rally at Bhopal : 14th Feb 2010

By Monu Ravindran

mravindran@sightsavers.org

This year the Blind Chase Bhopal Heritage Car Rally was held on 14th February 2010 where 50 cars with 100 participants – sighted drivers and the visually impaired navigators participated. Sightsavers North India Area (NIA) partner Arushi has been organizing the Blind Challenge car rally since 2007 as annual feature dedicated to the visually impaired with the purpose of creating awareness among the masses and sensitizing them on disability related issues. This year the theme of the rally was Blind Chase Heritage Car Rally based on heritage of Bhopal.

Sightsavers NIA team with participants

The rally covered around 30 km within Bhopal Municipal limits. Eminent personalities from various streams drove the car while visually challenged people were their navigators. The rally was flagged off by Mr. Babulal Gaur - State Minister for Urban Administration, Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Mr Babulal Gaur ( State Minister for Urban Administration) flagging off the rally with Ms Jayashree Kumar (Programme Manager-NIAO)

There were 50 cars with 100 participants (i.e.), drivers and navigators which started from Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya and moved around old Bhopal touching various heritage points of the Bhopal city . Among the 50 navigators, 3 of the blind navigators were from the project areas supported by Sightsavers in Madhya Pradesh. One of the navigator, Mr. Rajmani which was Sightsavers North Area partner (hospital +CBR + IE) - Samaritans Social Service Society, from Satna District of Madhya Pradesh received the third prize in the rally.

Sightsavers sponsored cash prizes & certificates for first three winners & all navigators were given ‘Braille watch’ to encourage their participation. The local radio channel Big 92.7 FM radio gave the live commentary of the rally which publicized the event.

Ms Archana Bhambal (Area Director - NIAO) with participants.