Helen Keller once said the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or event touched – they must be felt with the heart.
Keller, a world famous American author and activist who lost her sight and hearing as a baby, dedicated her life to advocate the rights of the disabled.
Her accomplishment in education in training for the disabled has set a cause for generations to come; and for this extraordinary woman little was impossible, inspiring the establishment of organisations such as Blind SA.
For 75 years, since 1946 Blind SA has championed the cause of blind people, providing education, training, placing the blind in the job market and making literature and other tools and aids accessible to the blind.
This past Saturday the Peninsula branch of the organisation celebrated its Diamond Jubilee at Jaggers Bowling Club in Mowbray.
“As we celebrate 75 years we are reminded of what we have accomplished over the decades. We have seen Blind SA growing in leaps and bounds over the decades and manifesting itself into the lives of the blind, but much remains to be done,” said president of Blind SA Ntshavheni Netshituni.
The organisation currently has 24 participating member organisations across the country with more than 1 500 active members. The organisation has renewed their vision for 2022 to reach more blind and partly sighted people, especially in the youth sector.
“Too many blind people are hidden away and not aware of the services Blind SA renders. Our challenges is to locate them. Very importantly, we call on blind youths to join the organisation in order to take it on into the next generation,” Netshituni says.
Blind SA helps to get blind children into the right schools, offers orientation and mobility training and offers access to an electronic library of literature. They advocate employment for the blind and reasonable accommodation at work.
“We need to identify and reach more blind children in order to start the right early childhood education at a young age, and for adults’ basic education training.”
Mobility training includes independent living skills such as white-cane walking and kitchen skills.
“We assist the blind in becoming independent and train them to start up their own micro businesses from home,” adds CEO Jace Nair.
Christo de Klerk, vice president of Blind SA, was one of the founder members of the Peninsula branch started in 1978.
“In those years we started as a few blind people in the Cape getting together. Much has been accomplished, but we still face big challenges such as gaining access to online services and banking and shopping apps for blind people,” says De Klerk.
In a recent legal victory in the High Court copyright exemption was granted to Blind SA, now making it possible to end the book famine for the blind.
“Once the ruling is rubber-stamped by the Constitutional Court in May this year, we will be able to publish more books for the blind,” De Klerk says.
Currently the blind in South Africa only have access to 0,5% of literature in braille or audio-book format. Yet another pressing challenge this year and an example of how the blind are often the forgotten ones in society is the registration for Census 2022.
“We discovered that registrations with Stats SA was inaccessible to the blind and we are currently engaging with them to correct this,” says Netshituni.
He encourages the blind to phone 0800 110248 in order to gain access to participate in the upcoming census.
Three benefactors in the Western Cape were honoured with national awards from Blind SA for their important contribution to Blind SA.
They are the St Dunstons John and Ester Ellerman Memorial Trust in Pinelands that subsidises the salaries of the mobility training staff; Nita van Zyl & Ibrahim Attorneys who does all legal work pro-bono and Wendy Ackerman for her contributions over 15 years.
Chair of the Peninsula branch André Vosloo, residing in Kraaifontein, was also awarded for his contribution to Blind SA since 1978.
“We believe the vision of Blind SA lies with its members,” says Vosloo.
