By Otegbade Wale
The Rehab Manager, Resource Center of the Blind, Daniel Isaiah Olamide, has decried misconceptions about blind persons with a cane being regarded as a beggar, stressing that blind persons with a cane are not.
He spoke during the celebration of the International White Cane and Safety Day, set aside globally for creating awareness about blindness and enlightenment about the skills blind persons can acquire to become useful to the society.
The event, which held in Lagos, had various activities conducted such as free eye test or check up for all, presentation of mobility cane to blind users and a health talk on how to love one’s eyes and lots more to enlighten people on the ways blind persons can still be useful in the society and giving the blind persons the same opportunity as others.
“We rehabilitate blind persons on the necessary skills they need to become more productive in the society. This event will bring us to the public in terms of awareness and enlightenment. Many people have misunderstood persons with blindness with a cane as a beggar. When they see you with a cane, they approach you to give money. Rather just approach them and say “hello, do you need help?” rather than embarrassing them with money.
“Any blind person that receives this cane is not a beggar but a productive person. We are also offering free eye screening for everybody both the blind and the sighted whereby to know the state of your eyes. There are blind people who their eyes still give them problems. By doing all this things, we reduce the rate at which people in our community get blind and to provide health services for those that can’t afford it and at the same time this is also to say to the general public and the government that policies that will favour persons with disabilities must be put in place.”
Former Chief of Naval Staff, Rear AdmiralJubril Ayinla (rtd) said: “Today’s event is one of our ways of partnering the government. We believe that the government of Lagos State is doing a lot in looking after the less privileged and especially this category of less privileged, the blind and visually impaired, and we believe the government alone cannot do everything. So in our own way, we are contributing to helping the visually impaired especially in the area of education.”