Ghana hosts 5th Africa Forum on Blindness

The 5th Africa Forum on Blindness opens at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration on Monday to discuss issues pertaining to service delivery as well as the development of blind persons in Africa, a statement released in Accra on Friday announced.

Experiences, ideas, initiatives and contacts will also be shared at the weeklong forum being hosted by the Ghana Blind Union together with SightSavers and under the auspices of the Institutional Development Programme of the World Blind Union.

It will be under the theme: “Access Africa – Exploiting the Full Benefit of Social Inclusion of all Persons.”

The statement said one major highlight would be the launch of “Techshare Africa”, an international technology initiative geared at providing a platform for the sharing and coordination of assistive technology for blind and partially sighted persons.

The statement described the Africa Forum as “a unique gathering of people from across the globe”.

This year, the forum has attracted the participation of over 350 delegates from over 30 countries from Africa and various parts of the world.

Participants include academics, researchers, educational institutions, service providers, students, policy makers, donors and organisations of blind and partially sighted persons.

The statement said there would be an international exhibition involving technology companies like Humanware, Freedom Scientific, Dolphin Access, Hilton Perkins.

Africa Forum is the continent’s largest and most prestigious event in the blindness sector.

“This gathering permits us to learn of the type and quality of services that are provided to blind persons on our continent,” the statement said.

Source: GNA