Redemption international for the Blind: A SHORT STORY OF A KING AND HIS BLIND SONA paper p...

Redemption international for the Blind: A SHORT STORY OF A KING AND HIS BLIND SONA paper p...: A SHORT STORY OF A KING AND HIS BLIND SON A paper presented by Kalu Ndukwe at Redemption International for the Blind 2014 Annual Charity Co...

A SHORT STORY OF A KING AND HIS BLIND SON A paper presented by Kalu Ndukwe at Redemption International for the Blind 2014 Annual Charity Convention In a far away land, there lived a very powerful king called Mustard. He was very rich. He had gold and silver in abundance. He married 127 wives and had 511 sons and daughters. The king had a particular wife he loved so much and her name was Jummy. Jummy, the beloved wife could not give the king a child for a decade. The king was sad and had wanted to divorce Jummy his beloved wife. He received lots of advice from his advisers; some said the king should divorce Jummy while others expressed hope that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. After 13 years of long waiting, Jummy finally had her first son called Viber. Although Viber was very handsome to behold, he was found to be congenitally blind. The king now became even more confused and furious than he was at Viber’s birth. Everyday, the king thought of what he could do with a blind son. He was adviced to banish Jummy and her blind son to another land. Others suggested that Viber could be sent to New Delhi to learn Acupuncture. Acupuncture, the king was told would make Viber a medical doctor so that he could take care of the king whenever he took ill. This unfortunately did not make any meaning to the King as he thought it impossible for a blind child to become a medical doctor. After a long while, the king was persuaded and he sent his blind son Viber to New Delhi where he learnt acupuncture and became a well known traditional healer. People came from many places to get healing from Viber. Not long afterwards, the rich king took ill and was flown to America, Cuba, United Kingdom and even to Egypt for medical attention. Unfortunately, he was not healed. Reluctantly, the king invited Viber to try his healing powers on him. Viber mixed his medicine for his dad, the king, rich and powerful; and the king was healed completely. And finally, Viber, the king’s blind son was appreciated and honored at last!

2014 ANNUAL CHARITY CONVENTION SPEECH An address presented by me Sunny Ezurike Esq. On the occasion of our fifth charity convention holding today, the 18th day of December, 2014 at Explicit Lodge Hotels, off Port-Harcourt Road, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

2013 ANNUAL CHARITY CONVENTION SPEECH An address presented by me Sunny Ezurike Esq. On the occasion of our fourth charity convention holding today, the 18th day of October, 2013 at NUJ Press Centre, Port-Harcourt Road, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

THE BLIND AND JOB OPPORTUNITY

THE BLIND AND JOB OPPORTUNITY A paper presented to the 2012 convention of Redemption International for the Blind at Concorde Hotel, Owerri, Imo State. Good day ladies and gentlemen. It is again my lot to talk to you this year. I presume I did not bore you too much last time out and I shall attempt to do the same now. Last year, I talked to you about Braille, the system of reading and writing for the blind in the life of a blind person. Now you have learnt your Braille, you have all the qualifications that mean you should stop spongeing on your parents and start adding your bit to the family exchequer. Whoops! Noone will trust you enough to give you a trial run. All those application forms you learnt how to write in school, they seem like practice run for someone else’s future. It can be soul destroying. I speak from personal experience. You can type? Mrs. Stenographer, set that machine for him! You become an object of disbelief for the ten minutes the demonstration lasts! You think you are being interviewed when someone asks you, “Who put your clothes on for you this morning?” When they read back your immaculate typing, you feel the job is yours! Forget it. You have not done the examination. A vacancy has not been declared in your area of specialisation. And, as you dispiritedly walk away, your overbloated ego in your shoe soles, you hear someone say: as though being blind makes you deaf! “I mean, what can a blind person really do?” The answer is simple: work! The followup question: “as what?” I was tempted all those years ago to respond, every one seems to be chit chatting and walking about, I can at least manage that! But as I learnt working for Mr. Maury Bruce before I went to university, you need help to chit chat, walk about and do nothing. You see, whenever the boss shows up, everyone appears to be very busy! And, I had to learn in university that being an ordinary receptionist, you needed assistance, and it took years before the equipment came on the market for me, enthusiasm and all, to be a passable blind receptionist! Maury Bruce was kind: one typist can answer the phone, receive visitors and sort out mails: an eye, or better still, a couple of working ones would do the trick and save the firm an extra wage bill.And, in my innocence, typist: forget it, who would pay for the amanuensis! Not economic at all! That is where learning crafts comes into its own. Except that as Paul Caswell, past CBM boss in Nigeria once warned: someone has to buy the bases and canes, nails and varnish and market for you; which makes you cheaper than the Akwaibom lads who make your products prohibitively expensive! Not the fault of the teachers. In Europe and America, weights are weights, quality is quality and you can have it delivered by phone. Our good old marketplace, fun, happy, noisy and exuberant; the problem is you hassle, and defective merchandise is sold, caveat emptor is alive, well and kicking! Music! Music! Music. How many blind people have been compared to Stevie Wonder? Peter Jackson Et Al, when all they wanted was a simple no TV, no radio, no CD job? God has blessed us with endless patience, so we can say without loss of face: “You know Sir, the Almighty gave me other gifts”. However, in King’s College, I made a pretence of tinkering around the keyboard of a piano, so, when I begged Cliff Richards for his autograph some years later, I deceived myself into saying, “Sir, I can play the piano”. And, in a near whisper, I added truthfully, “A bit”! before the great Cliff would ask me to demonstrate to the Albert Hall crowd my incompetence! I was pleased when the great Cliff Richard said to me, I have no stylus to give you an autograph now! Good show, I had a stylus, but what would I have said if the famous music maestro could not write Braille like me inspite of his millions! Why am I talking about music? When I worked in a school for the blind, every child wanted to be a Stevie Wonder! Unfortunately, the tonic solfa was to them a waste of time, and instruments apart from the guitar and drums were noise. Back to the beginning, blind people need jobs. They need to go to school, they need qualifications, and most important, they need a guardian angel, who would give them a chance to be productive, who would pay for them to make those vital first erroneous steps without laughing or undue criticism. But you need certain basic skills: type; read and write Braille; get yourself good grades without aid of expo; and forget those beggarly attitudes; they make you feel dirty afterwards. There are other skills which can be taught in a halfway home. When the late Sani Abacha released money to all States to build halfway homes, no southeastern State built one. The money in the area was wasted on frivolities. How many of our libraries have functional units for people living with disabilities with more than the religious literature in them? Where can you get your Braillewriter repaired? Your typewriter serviced? Who will make your phones talk? Your computers talk? Or even work out the number of steps and direction to the toilets without embarrassments; begging for things you can do yourself? Most important, who will teach you how to smile when all the work you have done is illegible because your typewriter ribbon went kaput on for long? When talking to those in authority, I always appeal to them to remember Adam’s disendowed children. Written by: Anaba GCN.

CHALLENGES CONFRONTING BLIND EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

CHALLENGES CONFRONTING BLIND EDUCATION IN NIGERIA Nigerian blind child is confronted with a lot of challenges in his quest to acquire knowledge, get gainfully employed and earn a worthy living. In all stages of education in Nigeria ranging from primary to tertiary, specialist facilities and specialist teachers are rarely available. His class room is nothing to write home about – no desk for the pupil to sit on, no stylus and no writing frame, Braille is taught under extreme difficulties, no typewriter to teach the pupil on how to type without which integration of the pupil into model secondary school would be hard. For clarity purposes, Braille is a form of reading and writing for the blind. Right from primary school, a blind child is taught to read and write Braille as most books are expected to be in Braille in order for him to study. Also, at the primary level, a blind child is taught to type with the typewriter as a means of communicating with the sighted particularly his teacher during exams. So, if a blind child does not know how to read and write Braille and cannot type as well, he remains largely illiterate. Imagine a situation where a blind child is not exposed to western education, what other option is open to him? How useful would he be in life to himself and the larger society? Whereas his sighted colleague who fails to acquire western education is able to engage himself in one meaningful activity or the other, the blind child is truly limited. Since he cannot push the truck, drive or conduct a bus, dry clean clothes, run shops or business centres, or possibly participate in the normal trading and commercial activities in our open markets, his only viable option remains going to school and acquiring the much needed knowledge for gainful employment into our offices. It therefore becomes pertinent that everything possible be done to give our blind children education in order to give them a future. A blind child who is not educated will ultimately end up in the streets as beggars which is one of the very reason why Redemption International for the Blind came into existence, to help eliminate street begging by blind persons. It is understandable that anyone who falls into a pit and does not cry out wants to remain there.! Since our registration as a charity in Scotland in 2009, we have worked very hard to advance the education of the blind in Nigeria under extreme circumstances with no support from the government. Nigerians are by nature not given to charity. Those of them who have the financial resources do not believe in charity. They only give at political gatherings to further their political ambitions. They do not give where there is no clear immediate gain. Every year, we hold a charity convention in Nigeria where we distribute for free specialist facilities designed to advance the education of the blind. Such facilities like laptop and desktop computers are given out. While the laptop computers are donated to individual blind students in tertiary institutions, the desktop computers are donated to secondary schools that admit blind students so that they can be taught computer alongside with their sighted colleagues. Other facilities available for grabs during our annual charity convention include typewriters, tape recorders, talking and Braille wrist watches, guide canes, talking BP monitors, talking Bibles, Braille papers, scanners, printers, Braille writing frames, Perkins braillers, etc. In all, we seek to create such an atmosphere where the Nigerian blind child can go to school and be presented with equal opportunity to excel in his academics just like his sighted colleagues. With the right attitude, right facilities, right teachers and right environment, this is achievable. Help us! Join us in this fight!

IN SEARCH OF A CHAMPION

IN SEARCH OF A CHAMPION Permit me to start this article by appreciating all of you, peace loving citizens of Imo State. I appeal for your rapt attention as you read to digest this important article designed to address some of the most pressing needs that confront persons with disability not only in Imo State but also in Nigeria at large. Read this not just like every other article seen on the pages of news papers but rather, follow the article word by word and line by line. Perhaps you may be touched to champion our course. It is important to start by stating categorically that the time is ripe when governments world over should begin to respect the rights of persons with special needs. Under a democratic regime where rule of law and human rights are not only observed but also respected, it is very normal to have groups of persons express their dissatisfaction over certain programmes of the government of the day; it is very normal for groups of persons to air their views and grievances as touching certain actions or inactions of the government of the day and it is very normal for groups of persons to freely assemble and express their opinions without fear of intimidation or molestation. It is common in a democratic setting to listen patiently to such voices and to have some of their genuine grievances addressed accordingly. It is also important to emphatically state here that this ARTICLE is not in any way politically motivated and it WILL BE very wrong to describe it as such. When people demand for rights to which they are entitled, they are simply appealing for the kind intervention of the strong, particularly to those with the political might to change situations and circumstances. Such demands should be seen as positive developments aimed at making government more responsible and accountable to the people. Is it really possible to truly rebrand Nigeria when we have not rebranded ourselves? For a true and effective rebranding of this country, we need to start with ourselves, rebrand our consciences, our thoughts, actions and approach to questions bothering on human dimension with utmost caution. Does it require a politician to tell me of the importance of education to persons with disability? The answer is no!!! In fact, “it is he who wears the shoes that knows where it pinches”. Do I need a politician to tell me of the important and invaluable role availability of funds can play in making education more accessible to persons with disability in our secondary and tertiary institutions? In fact, the normal Nigerian politician would rather want to see that funds allocated to manage disability related issues if any, are stifled as much as possible so as to save more for his self aggrandisement. Do I need a prophet to remind me of the fact that the disabled persons deserve equal employment opportunities? For instance, when a blind man who qualifies to work is denied of such an opportunity, you are in effect telling the person to go begging. Is it not a notorious fact that a blind man cannot push truck? he cannot hawk?, and he can neither drive nor conduct a bus? You discover that the blind man is limited to office jobs only. If you then deny him of employment, what other option is left to him? Most of these disabled people go hungry every night for lack of food. Majority of them now depend on relatives and friends if they must survive the next day while some others have taken to street begging. Pathetic? Is the current situation not reversible? Persons in authority should begin to see themselves as instruments in the hands of God to rewrite wrongs naturally imposed on persons with disability. Nobody ever chooses to be blind, lame or deaf. Believe me disability is no respecter of persons. It can occur at any time and anywhere. Why then would someone want to close his ears to the cries from such people like these? Nobody knows tomorrow so as to insulate himself from mishap! Gone are the days when one’s rights can be trampled upon with little or no resistance. We are in a modern age and our leaders need to wake up to these reality. Above all, this is a democracy, government of the people, by the people and for the people. Education is our right. We also have a right to work and these rights must be respected. See articles 24 and 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The solution does not lie in deceit but in practical positive approach to the issues as raised. I wonder if you are still following. Narrowing this whole article down to my Imo experience, I make bold to write without exaggeration of the cordial relationship that existed between the disabled community in the State and the immediate past governor of Imo State, Chief Sir Ikedi Ohakim. Without exaggeration, there were a number of things the governor did for us which we can hardly forget. Actual approval for a special school for the blind had since been given by the governor, yet up till now, those whose responsibility it is to tidy up the centre for actual take-off of the school are not living up to expectation. Not too long ago, the governor granted one of us foreign scholarship in the person of Barr. Sunny O. Ezurike which enabled him complete his Master of Laws Degree (LLM) in Human Rights at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. The only headache here to my mind is what I would want to refer to as abdication of responsibilities by some of the governor’s lieutenants who were seemingly against us and that explained why our various messages expressing our grievances hardly got to the governor and it is high time this trend be corrected. Otherwise, same situation will prevail throughout this current political dispensation in the State. We are persuaded that our current governor can do a lot more for us and we know the will is there. In line with the true spirit of the new rescue mission agenda, I appeal to our governor to help stop poverty from eating too deep into us by offering our teaming members who qualify for jobs jobs. An upward review or Increase in the scholarships and bursary allowances payable to our blind wards in secondary and tertiary institutions to enable them meet up with the current realities of things would be highly appreciated. Equal employment opportunities extended to us and a special school for the blind established in Imo State since the State is the only State in the south-east without such a centre. You will agree with me that these demands are not just realistic, but achievable. These are things that concern our welfare and general well-being. We are directly affected and we will receive no attention if we don’t speak out. This is the reason for this article. It is a truism that governments worldwide are there to serve their people. We want to be given some sense of belonging; we deserve the attention of this government. To fully realise the laudable plans of His Excellency, the executive governor of Imo State, I suggest we be given a voice in the government by way of a political appointment. “Let the head that fits the crown wear it.” My heartfelt prayer is that the Almighty God before whom I stand shall protect you, granting you the much needed wisdom to stir the ship of this State aright. You could be the Lion of our time. Your victory at the polls in 2011 was guaranteed by the love of the masses towards your various charitable programmes while outside the government; God had to overturn and overturn and overturn until you emerged winner in the polls. Justify this God given victory by being fair as much as practicable to everybody. Give everyone what is due him, disabled or not. For whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well! Thank you. Signed: Sunny Ezurike (Esq.) CEO: Redemption International for the Blind