The third Africa
Forum held from 23 to 27 May 2004 at Midrand, South Africa was an occasion
that underlined the enormous capabilities of persons with a visual impairment.
The visually impaired delegates from the 26 countries of Africa represented
at the meeting took the lead role in the preparation and organisation
of the Forum and in the management and conduct of the programme, proving
that they have the potential to become the "Voice of Africa".
The inaugural session was addressed by Honourable Essop Pahad, Minister
in the Office of the State President, Government of South Africa, who
urged the Governments and service providers to collaborate over service
development for people with visual impairment. He argued that developing
countries with scant resources need to define their priorities carefully
and collaborate to ensure the effectiveness of services for people with
visual impairment. He was proud that the South African parliament has
a greater representation of people with disabilities than most other parliaments
in the world. International organisations present at the Forum were recognised
and the representatives of these organisations greeted the delegates.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Judge Zak Yacoob, the Constitutional
Court Judge of South Africa, Dr. William Rowland, Second Vice-President
of the World Blind Union, and Mr. Aubrey Webson, Coordinator of the Forum.
Mr. Pahad also opened the exhibition of the conference. The ICEVI booth
was visited by the Minister where he was appraised of the activities of
ICEVI in the vast Africa region.
ICEVI used the occasion to promote education for all children with visual
impairment and lobbied for closer cooperation between governments, international
organisations and organisations of and for the visually impaired. ICEVI
was represented by Larry Campbell, President, Mani, M.N.G., Secretary
General, Wilfred Maina, Regional Chairperson, Africa Region, Deputy Regional
Chairpersons and many country representatives of the Africa region. ICEVI
was delegates involved in a number of key sessions throughout the forum.
During the plenary session on the second day, Larry Campbell and Wilfred
Maina presented a global overview of ICEVI activities with specific attention
to current and planned actions for the Africa region. They stressed the
importance of bringing national organisations to form ICEVI chapters.
During the session, the joint ICEVI-WBU educational policy statement was
released in both English print and braille.
Mani, M.N.G., Secretary General made a presentation on the on-going research
initiative of ICEVI in Uganda, which is aimed at identifying the most
critical factors that should be in place to make education of children
with visual impairment successful in local primary schools. By presenting
the interim findings of the research, he mentioned that the final results
of the study will be available by the end of December 2004 and opined
that the research study can be replicated in other countries in the region
in order to provide hard data to the policy planners about the pre-requisites
that should be in place for making inclusive education for children with
visual impairment successful.
He also organised a workshop on mathematics and described various components
of the ICEVI/ ON-NET (Overbrook Nippon Network for Educational Technology)
mathematical package which is likely to be ready in early 2005. The workshop
generated a lot of interest among the participants who wanted to know
more about the methodology of teaching mathematics as knowledge in this
subject is vital for visually impaired students to pursue higher education.
A networking session under the title of "Friends of ICEVI" was
attended by representatives of various countries who worked in groups
to consider the role of ICEVI in formulating policies and facilitating
services to persons with visual impairment. The groups also discussed
the priorities for each country or sub-region that should be considered
by the Africa regional committee.
At the initiative of ICEVI and the Force Foundation, a
session was organised to discuss issues relating to braille production
in the region. A large number of delegates attended this session and opined
that braille production centres in Africa need to share soft copies for
reproduction of braille materials locally and also to share information
to avoid duplication. Mr. Dick Tucker from the Force Foundation has created
an interest group on this subject to follow-up braille production issues
regularly and complement the services of each other organisations in the
region.
On the whole, the Africa Forum provided an excellent platform for ICEVI
to push forward its global agenda of education for all children with visual
impairment. In the process, ICEVI took on board scores of young persons
with visual impairment, who can really make a difference in the future.
The long trip to Midrand resulted in a number of valuable outcomes for
ICEVI.
