Trust educates Alex community about blindness

The South African Mobility for the Blind Trust in collaboration with Sanca and the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Social Development held an awareness event at the East Bank Hall on March 22 to sensitise and educate the community on issues of blindness.

The trust provides blind and partially sighted South Africans with training to become independent which includes orientation and mobility training. They cover both rural and urban areas to train visually impaired people to enable them to independently go about their daily activities.

They also teach them how to walk using the white cane, how to cook, clean, wash, iron and do everyday chores by themselves.

The trust’s spokesperson Parishna Ramluckan, who is herself blind, said the purpose of the event was to educate the community in an effort to eradicate the stigma attached to blindness and misconceptions by society.
She, however, emphasised that they would like people to treat the blind like any other person and that blindness only means one cannot see the world with the naked eye.

She also highlighted the societal stereotypes around the perceived need to hide and isolate the blind and how some people are still afraid to make friends with blind people.

“We are still marginalized. Nobody speaks to us and many blind people are still isolated not just within their communities but also in workspaces. There are many blind people that are unemployed because we are the last ones to be considered for employment and we are not given the opportunities,” Ramluckan said.

Tsholofelo Modikwe, an orientation and mobility practitioner at the South African Mobility for the Blind Trust encouraged people to accept and be more accommodating towards the blind and also try to help them whenever they can.

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