Helping the Blind to become independent

Thu, 17 June 2010

• ‘I am very grateful for the help given to us blind people’ - - Kahlolo Mvimbe, beneficiary*

REPORT 1: South African National Council for the Blind – Assistive Devices for the Blind in the Free State

The South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) identified 96 visually impaired people living in the Free State Province who were in need of assistive devices. Through this SASIX-funded project, the council was able to distribute walking canes, signature guides, money sticks and liquid level indicators to the identified beneficiaries and provide them with the training to get full use out of the devices.

Outputs

The Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Practitioner has trained the 96 visually impaired clients in cane skills and how to use the liquid level indicators, money templates and signatures guides. By the end of the June: * 96 people will have received folding mobility canes * 42 will have received liquid level indicators * 15 will have received money templates * 10 will have received signatures guides.

Expenditure

Challenges

• SANCB originally planned to distribute all the assistive devices on the same day in Welkom. However, due to the great distances between the various Free State towns where the beneficiaries live and difficulties with transport, they did not manage to gather all the beneficiaries to Welkom as planned. SANCB decided to go ahead as planned, and on 18 May 2010 at the Welkom Library, issued 22 Mobility folding canes, 20 liquid level indicators, 10 Money templates and 5 Signature guides. The rest of the assistive devices will be distributed by the O&M practitioner, the Community Developer and the Master Trainer in the Province by the end of June 2010.
• The numbers of devices initially indicated in the proposal has changed, due to the increase of the cost of the devices which is dictated by exchange rates. SANCB originally proposed distributing 50 liquid level indicators, 25 signature guides and 30 money templates, but were only able to buy 42 liquid level indicators, 10 signature guides and 10 money templates. They were still able to buy the 96 mobility canes as planned.
• Some of the initial candidates have either already received assistive devices from another source, or contact has been lost with them. Other suitable candidates have been identified.

Monitoring and evaluation

Records are kept on all the beneficiaries who have received assistive devices. SANCB will follow up on all of these individuals three months after the distribution of the devices.

Conclusions

While the project is taking longer than initially planned owing to transport difficulties, SASIX is confident that SANCB is capable of distributing the rest of the devices by the end of June. These simple devices have the potential to have a radical impact on the beneficiaries’ lives by relieving them of the indignity of being a burden on their families and by giving them the independence to do day-to-day tasks on their own.