Day: June 24, 2023

The Eagle Voice International for Disability Rights, an NGO, has trained 10 young visually impaired ladies on Information Communications Technology (ICT) mobility and the use of navigation tools for movement.

The Executive Director, Eagle Voice, Oluwakemi Odusanya, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Odusanya said that the training was important to enable the young ladies between ages 22 and 52 to integrate themselves into the larger society like their sighted friends and colleagues.

“In the last eight weeks, we had 10 blind and partially sighted women across different spaces in Lagos.

“They underwent ICT training in IT tools like the use of computer with screen reader for daily and professional use in topics like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and the basic use of the computer as well as communication and gestures.

“So, in this aspect, they were taught how to interact with each other, some were first time interactions where they had a lot of visual impaired persons around.

“We also had the mobility orientation class where they had to learn how to use the white cane as a symbol of navigation around from their houses down to this place.

“So, we had 10 visually impaired persons across ranging from the age 22 to 52, to teach them all these important skills,” Odusanya said.

The executive director said that she was motivated to train the visually impaired ladies because she saw a need and a disconnect in the community of the visually impaired in skills gap, compared to their male counterparts.

“I recall when I had one year training at Leadership Training Institute in India, where I was taught how to develop and be a social change maker.

“I realised that actually there is a gap between the visually impaired women and the men in the community.

“When it comes to skills we have less women who have a knowledge of how to use computer or even how to work independently or even out to interact within the community.

“And this has been a challenge, a very great challenge actually in the community,” Odusanyua said.

She said that the experience led her to focus on the blind and visually impaired women and to bring out the abilities in them.

“Some of them are facing a lot but they don’t know who to talk to and how to go about it.

“I, being a live experience, have been blind for over 15 years and I saw that there is a need; why not take this up within my community.

“So from there I set up a proposal to International Blind Football Foundation and they gave us a small grant to be able to do this two months exclusive training for the blind and visually impaired women,” Odusanya said.

She said that she intended to seek further collaboration with various foundations to scale up the training to reach more visually impaired ladies and for a longer duration.

According to her, the foundation in the nearest future, will create a hub for career development for visually impaired women where they can share their experiences and motivate each other to acquire skills.

She urged all women out there who are visually impaired to avail themselves of these opportunities to acquire life skills for employment.

The trainees expressed appreciation to the Eagles Voice International for Disability Rights for the opportunity granted them.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has attributed the success of the outbound movement of Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia to the tremendous support of President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima.

The Chairman of NAHCON, Alhaji Zikrullah Hassan, made this known during a Pre-Arafat meeting with all stakeholders held on Saturday in Makkah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He said that the commission had successfully transported all the 95,000 eligible Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

He disclosed that a few days ago the commission out of determination to transport all pilgrims to Saudi Arabia made a reservation of five flights extra in the event that there was any Nigerian who have a visa but had issue with flight so that the commission would bring him to Saudi Arabia.

According him, the commission after confirming that all pilgrims had been transported to Saudi Arabia that it decided to cancel the five extra flights on June 23.

“I want to appreciate the support and guidance of President Bola Tinubu and his Vice President, Kashim Shettima, for their support in many ways where the mention of it could be very unnecessary.

“Our being here today is made possible for their support and guidance on the leadership of NAHCON,” he said.

Hassan also applauded the executive chairmen of the 36 states and the FCT pilgrims welfare boards, agencies and commissions for their support towards ensuring successful transportation of all Nigerian eligible pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage.

Similarly, he commended the Association of Umrah and Hajj Tour Operators of Nigeria for working round the clock to ensure the success of the first phase of the 2023 Hajj operation.

“When the situation of flight was troublesome we were together up to the last moment,” he stated.

On his part, Dr Usman Galadima, the Chief of Operations and Head of Nigerian Medical Team for the 2023 Hajj, revealed that the medical team recorded 30 cases of pilgrims with mental health challenge.

He also said that the team recorded six deaths, seven cases of pregnancies, two miscarriages, eight communicable diseases and offer consultation to 15,860 patients.

Earlier, the Nigerian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Yahaya Lawal, commended the leadership of NAHCON for its tireless efforts in ensuring the success transportation of Nigerian pilgrims for this year’s.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Oshikoto regional council has spent N.dollars 40 million on infrastructure development for the 2022/23 financial year.

This was revealed by Oshikoto Governor, Penda Ya Ndakolo during his state of the regional address at Omuthiya on Wednesday.

He said the regional council budgeted a total of N.dollars 46 million towards infrastructure development, of which N.dollars 40 million was spent, accounting for a 88 per cent execution rate.

Ya Ndakolo said the development focused on the provision of clean drinking water, electrification of rural areas, settlements and growth centres, surveying of settlements, implementation of the sanitation programs, and the construction of roads and offices.

He further highlighted that during the year under-review, the region budgeted for 17 areas to be electrified, of which seven were fully electrified with medium and low voltage networks, noting the other ten are in progress and the majority of them are above 80 per cent progress rate.

“Infrastructure development is important as it does not only ensure the provision of critical goods and services to the communities, but it also provides the much needed employment through tenders awarded, especially to private companies,” he noted.

Ya Ndakolo noted that the region continues to face water scarcity challenges, especially in the deep rural areas, where water pressure is low or salty. However, despite those challenges, the regional leadership is fully conscious of the responsibility they bear to mitigate them.

He indicated that the division of rural water supply conducted experimental interventions towards the water challenge by digging five deep boreholes at an amount of N.dollars 4 million in the rural constituencies which are historically prone to saline underground water, however, it was found that none of the five boreholes were safe for human and animal consumption.

“In order to cleanse the water and make it suitable for consumption, the division is currently busy implementing the desalination process,” he noted.

He revealed that the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) is working on the environmental impact assessment study for the Ondangwa Omutsegwonime water-pipeline replacement phase-one, which is budgeted at N.dollars 80 million as well as the Oshivelo-Omutswgonime water supply scheme, which is at the initiation phase and budgeted at N.dollars 27 million.

Source: Namibia Press Agency

Outgoing Chairperson of the SADC Chiefs of Police Sub-Committee and Inspector General of the Namibian Police Force, Lieutenant General Joseph Shikongo, recommended that member states lagging behind in securing their communication systems should consult other states.

Shikongo made the call at the opening of the 28th Annual General Meeting of the SADC Sub-Committee Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation (SARPCCO) in Swakopmund on Thursday.

He emphasised that it is only through consultations and constant engagements that member states can find ways to improve on their level of cooperation, as well as exchanging good practices, in efforts to combat Transnational Organised Crimes (TOCs), for the benefit of safety and security in the region and beyond.

“Cooperation and joint engagements undoubtedly provide the necessary ingredients needed, for the growth of knowledge and skills required to facilitate the formulation and development of effective interventions to combat transnational and cross-border crimes,” Shikongo explained.

The police chief highlighted SARPCCO’s achievements, noting that it has made significant headways towards strengthening cooperation and fostering joint strategies, for the management of all forms of transnational and related crimes, which have regional implications.

Incoming SARPCCO Chairperson IG of the Zambian Police Services, Graphael Musamba, in his acceptance speech congratulated Namibia’s chairpersonship during the one-year tenure, while appreciating the SADC INTERPOL department for the support constantly offered to SARPCCO to ensure its success.

He further emphasised the need to equip law enforcers with the right tools to enable them to fight transnational crime within the region.

“We are mindful that crime and the methods of committing it has tremendously evolved over the past years, the advent of social media and the ability to utilise it across the continent, has not only eased the ways in conducting business but has also opened up many avenues for the perpetrators of crime.

Therefore, our collective responsibilities as law enforcers is to ensure that we put our decisions into action to combat these crimes,” Musamba emphasised.

Namibia took over the Chairmanship during the 27th SARPCCO annual general meeting held in South Africa in June 2022.

Source: Namibia Press Agency