Sense International Non- Governmental Organisation, which supports deaf-blind people to live, learn and strive for life said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the grants have already been given to individuals to start businesses.
“We have already given 1m/- to each grantee and today we are here to assess the development of their activities that they have already started engaging in,” said the Country Director of Sense International (EA) in Tanzania Mr Geoffrey Atieli. He said the aim of providing the grants is to help the deaf-blind people become active members of the society.
Mr Atieli said the organisation in collaboration with the government is working to support deaf-blind children and elder people with disability to receive educational, financial and other life-support. Speaking in Dar es Salaam during the evaluation meeting with a team of deafblind youth, Mr Atieli said with government support, the organisation has established 10 centres in various districts to offer support to the deafblind people.
“Other activities yet to be conducted are the promotion of exclusive education in schools to support and enable children with disabilities to learn together with other students,” he said, adding that the organisation is currently piloting the project in various schools.
A teacher dealing with deaf-blind students at Uhuru Mchanganyiko Primary school, Andrew Paul said many challenges were still facing the blind and deaf people especially children, calling on the government and other well-wishers to join hands in tackling the challenges.
He mentioned lack of enough skilled teachers for the blind and deaf pupils, lack of teaching facilities and dormitories to accommodate the number of needy students as some of the challenges.