Role of the French-Speaking Union for the Blind in the Field of Employment
by Françoise MADRAY-LESIGNE
Associations for the visually impaired and employment in developing French-speaking countries
No one will be surprised if I emphasize from the very outset that at the start
of this twenty-first century social integration through work remains for the
vast majority of blind and visually impaired individuals in developing countries
an impossible dream. Moreover, the situation of French-speaking countries is
even more difficult than that of the English-speaking ones who over the years
have developed a more structured network of associations and receive more
help from the industrialized countries. Here, more than elsewhere,
the statistics are lacking that would enable us a complete and overall view
of the problem. We have no reliable figures that can tell us how many visually
impaired people receive remuneration for work performed either in the countries
of North Africa or south of the Sahara. But what we can say without risk of
error is that blind people at work remain the exception rather than the rule
and that the range of jobs open to them is much more restricted than in the
Northern Hemisphere. Most of the time, only traditional jobs in agriculture,
craftwork (brush making, caning, etc.) prove feasible. Other than switchboard
operator positions, jobs in the public sector are generally closed to their ranks.
As regards teaching posts in the ordinary sector, in particular, the doors
remain resolutely shut.
Naturally, situations differ greatly from one country to another, but beyond this diversity and the specific features of each region, two factors can be seen that are decisive in conditioning and promoting the development of jobs:
1. The rise in literacy and school attendance among blind children ;
2. The driving role of associations of the non-sighted, which constitute both the starting point and the cornerstone of professional integration.
To demonstrate the extent to which these two factors are closely interwoven, I shall mention very quickly, just as an example, three contrasting situations, that of the island of Mauritius, Cameroon and Tunisia.
The
Mauritian association Lizie dan la main was set up twenty years ago to teach French-speaking blind children living on the island how to read, and prepare them for a job. With only scarce resources, it taught some thirty children in all, creating a craft workshop in partnership with a company that had the wherewithal to find outlets for the items they produced. In partnership with the Valentin Haüy Association (AVH), they recently set up a department for adaptive I.T. training to create new outlets in the field of office automation. Relayed by the media, their initiative is a positive call to the structures of the States to pay greater attention to the plight of their visually impaired citizens.
The recently created
National Association for the Blind of Cameroon (ANAC) brings together a large number of associations most of which run schools that teach reading and writing. Some of them organize help in integrating their pupils into school life, and this aid continues right through to University. The effort towards employment also needs to be developed, in partnership with non-governmental agencies, craft or agricultural workshops. However, not having funding of their own and lacking significant assistance from the powers that be puts a brake on such initiatives. A department for adaptive I.T. training is in the pipeline, though, and should facilitate the diversification of suitable outlets.
The
National Union of Blind People of Tunisia (UNAT) was created in the 1960’s and receives considerable funding from the State. Its action in favor of integration is highly diversified. It runs several sheltered workshops; with its Braille and spoken libraries it helps secondary school pupils and students; it prints school textbooks for the 3 specialist primary and secondary schools run by the State, runs a school for (blind) physiotherapists and in one of its center proposes a training for telephone switchboard operators. Finally, in the last 2 years, in partnership with the AVH, it has set up an adaptive I.T. training department and created a computer club that has a lot of members. Relayed by the media, all of these initiatives contribute to changing the image of non-sighted people who for too long have been considered unfit for employment. It should also be noted that the UNAT is opening its training courses to African countries that might wish to second students to study there.
There are associations for the blind in all French-speaking developing countries and the employment situation is closely tied to their reach. The aforementioned examples attest both to the potential that exists there, and to the huge obstacles that remain to be overcome. With these prospects, job development can be greatly helped by actions of partnership between associations, an expression of solidarity that breaks down barriers and enables the visually impaired to help each other along the long road towards independence and social integration. The exchange of experience and information instigates and promotes such initiatives and must therefore be developed.
Solidarity with the countries of the South is one of the major objectives that the French-Speaking Union of the Blind set itself at its creation in 2001. Currently the Union groups some fifty or so associations in 21 countries. As our means are limited we are unable to implement action programs to promote employment, which supposes vast commitments of funds. However, we have decided to act on the essential underpinning to enriching and successful professional integration, which is easier access to knowledge. Our action plan will enable us to equip 20 schools with the basic teaching materials between now and 2005. Additionally, in partnership with Fondation Force we will this very year be creating three regional computerized Braille printing presses in Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia respectively. These printing presses have the vocation of reaching out to meet both the needs for Braille books and documents in the countries concerned and those of the neighboring countries.
Through this aid for training we hope to contribute usefully to the blossoming of the deep well of potential that exists within all of us to master the written word and the pleasure of entering the world of books, which is all the more precious in nourishing the imagination of those who cannot see the world for themselves. From the gates of learning to the portals of employment, the path is a long one yet, and a rocky road too for the millions of blind people until recently cast by the waysides. In the daily effort to combat preconceived ideas and prejudice, their associations have a role that can be filled by no other, and can count on our fraternal solidarity with their cause.
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