By Desire Tshuma.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – Usually the World Braile Day is commemorated on the 4th of January every year since the death of Louis Braile a French visually impaired eucationist who died in 1854 in France.In Zimbabwe this time the commemorations were done on Friday 26 January in Harare Rotary Club.
This time the event was organised by Groce Care International which is an organisation that supplies braile assistive devices around the country.Groce Care International was formed in 2012 and its Headquarters are in Masvingo and have some offices in Harare. ‘We are still to establish centres around the country but as for now we are having our representatives who are in all corners of the country’ said Diana Shonhiwa.Diana Shonhiwa is a chief Markerting Officer for Groce Care International based in Harare.
The celebrations were graced by several government representatives which includes the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education ,Ministry of higher and tetiary education Ministry of Justice ,students from different Schools to mention a few.Other invited guest was a representative from the Africa Disability Alliance which was represented by Kudakwashe Dube.’Braile is a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have a low vision’ explained Diana .She further stated that braile was not a language but a code by which many languages such as English ,China or dozens others may be written and read and it is used all over the world .
One of the speakers on the occasion was Tsitsi Chataika who is a lecturer with the university of Zimbabwe , she explained one of the causes of blindness and mentioned culture and religion that they contributes sometimes to blindness . ‘If you don’t take your child for immunisation she/he is likely to be affected leading to blindness’ explained Tsitsi. She accussed some other churches who had that tendency of not taking children for immunisation.Tsitsi is widely known for disability activism and one of her former student ,a lawyer by profession who is visually impaired advocate Abraham Mateta also took the opportunity to explain what the law says about disability in terms of education. ‘The law says in this country we have sixteen languages including sign language so every school should have teachers who are well versed with sign language and schools must have facilities for visually impaired and disabled students’ he explained.
Groce Care International is found in number 1359 Birmingham road in Southerton ,Harare it is also working around Southern Africa specialising in supplying modern high standard braile assistive devices to all who are in need of such devices.They even go to work places where there are people who are visually impaired and help by supplying then.
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