The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), an energy think tank in the Republic of Ghana, Covid-19 prevention educational material in Braille, along with some ‘Veronica Buckets’, nose masks and plastic buckets, to the Ghana Blind Union (GBU) at the Accra Rehabilitation Centre.
In an interview with energynewsafrica.com after the presentation, Head of Programmes at ACEP, Alhassan Iddrisu said the cost of the materials, together with ‘Veronica’ buckets and other protective equipment, amounted to twenty-four thousand Ghana Cedis (Ghc24,000).
He said they realised that persons with disabilities such as the blind, among others, were left out of the numerous educational and sensitisation interventions by the government and corporate bodies, companies and organisations that donated cash and PPE in the quest to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
This, Iddrusu said, motivated ACEP to collaborate with the Ghana Blind Union to invest into the production of braille educational materials to sensitise and educate persons with blindness about the devastating effect of the Covid-19.
According to him, ACEP had championed the distribuion of the materials in almost all the regional capitals to facilitate education and sensitising persons with disabilities in Ghana.
“Any approach to address any issue must not be discriminatory. It must be comprehensive and we noticed this gap that of all the sensitisation materials and education programmes, there is no braille, that is, the reference materials for persons with blindness. So we collaborated with the GBU to produce braille sensitisation materials,” he explained.
The ACEP Programmes Head said persons with blindness needed to know about the government’s cushion of paying the water bills of all Ghanaians for April to June and part for electricity consumers for same period, so they could take advantage of the situation in the mist of the pandemic.
In his remarks, the Executive Director of the Ghana Blind Union (GBU), Dr Peter Obeng-Asamoa expressed appreciation to ACEP for the gesture.
He said his members would make good use of the braille materials for education and sensitisation of persons with blindness in the country.
“Social distancing is key in dealing with the Covid-19 but since we cannot see, we need to spend more to get those who aid us to walk by proving double to meet this criteria,” he lamented.
He called for the government’s swift intervention to assist them to live a little more comfortably.
Dr Obeng-Asamoa noted that some of his members who had started small businesses have had to abandon them because of the Covid-19, thus, making life uncomfortable for them.
He appealed to the benevolent bodies and corporate institutions to also come to their aid.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
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