Mr. Eric Kwabla Ofori, Director of the New Horizon Foundation of the Blind (NHFB), has said visually impaired children, "are naturally problem solvers" and must be helped to sharpen their creative and analytical capabilities.
He said though bad sight was a weakness, such children had capabilities that needed to be strengthened to propel their future.
Mr. Ofori said this at a day’s workshop to train and increase the capacity of parents and visually impaired children on Inclusive Education (IE) policy, supported by the Deutsches Blindenhilfswerk Partnership.
“Visually impaired children are people created by God with capabilities and we all have to help them achieve whatever they wanted to achieve,” he said.
Mr Ofori asked the children not be ashamed of their visual impairment but accept it and seek guidance from people around them.
He appealed to parents to desist from abusing such children physically and verbally, instead empower them to strengthen their weaknesses and capabilities, saying, “they are not disabled but rather impaired”.
Mr. Ofori also encouraged the parents to empower themselves with the knowledge on what their wards were attaining, to help them learn at home during the pandemic.
The Director called on parents to form solidarity groups to be able to advocate more for their children.
Mr. Richard Ametefe, Project Team-Lead for the Foundation, entreated the children not be passive learners at school but be assertive to enable them excel in life and academically.
“Assertiveness is a skill every visually impaired or persons with disability needs to have, to be able to achieve whatever they want to achieve,” he said.
Mrs. Nyuieme Adiepena, E.P Church National Women Fellowship Project Officer said visual challenges were not barriers to higher education, therefore parents should encourage their wards to excel in academics.
The children were given visually impaired user friendly mobile phones and trained on how to use them to communicate with their teachers and facilitators and learn at home in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
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