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NGO decries ’illiteracy’ among phisically challenged women
2006-05-11 09:53:53
By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar
Zanzibar Association for the Blind’s (ZANAB) women wing has expressed concern over the spiraling number of ’illiterate’ women in the association.
ZANAB’s women wing secretary, Fatma Djaa said on Wednesday out of 600 registered blind women on the island, only 18 are able to use the Braille to read and write.
Djaa made the disclosure during a courtesy call at the ZANAB offices by Zuleikha Yunus Hajji, a member of the union parliament, on disabled ticket (CCM).
’’We have made some progress in the association’s women wing including running some income generating activities such as handicrafts and small scale business, but advancement in our ventures is hampered by insufficient skill and lack of knowledge,’’ Djaa said.
She added: ’’We also have the problem of lack of farm inputs, farming tools in our farm in Wete- Pemba, raw-materials for making mats in Micheweni- Pemba, and lack of papers for our in-house courses.’’
Djaa said that the few educated ZANAB members were volunteering to train their colleagues, ’’at least to braille,’’ but the equipment was a hindrance.
The few blind women who can read were trained by Birgitta Karlsson from Europe.
Reacting to the ZANAB’s concerns, the MP pledged 500, 000/- to support various activities and to sponsor five blind women from each region of Zanzibar to go for a short study tour in the Tanzania mainland.
’’I will help to solve the problem of papers, and other missing materials. But I think it is very important to fight for knowledge.
I start off by sponsoring women to go in the Tanzania mainland to learn from the blind women there who have developed a number of good income generating activities,’’ the MP said.
She appealed to the women to prioritise education so that women would be empowered to compete favourably with their male counterparts.
’’Just refereeing to our ZANAB, all the top posts are held by Men, why! We should not allow this to happen in the future and especially in the next ZANAB elections.
You have to contests for the top posts,’’ the lawmaker advised
The MP, educated in the Tanzania Mainland Institute for the Blind, is the first blind women from Zanzibar to the Union Parliament.
Zanzibar has no training institution for the blind. According to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare statistics 1 per cent of Zanzibar’s 1 million population are blind.
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