News

Increasing needs for resources to help visually impaired

May 27, 2019 4:32 pm

The need for resources to meet the needs of students who are visually impaired or fully blind is a challenge.

Society for the Blind Executive Director, Barbara Farouk says educating these students is a costly exercise because the resources needed are expensive.

Farouk says there is no local market to cater to these needs.

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“First of all, we have to have braille for totally blind child. The cost of one braille arriving in Fiji is around $1,200 FJD and then we also have to get it from overseas because we won’t be able to get it locally and the other one is the cane and other assisting devices like monocles, magnifiers and CCTV Cameras.”

Farouk says the Society always fundraises to help meet the increasing demand for these devices and also send requests to donors.

She adds they are also receiving school grants from the government, however, these cannot cater for all the needs as getting the assisting devices from overseas markets are costly.