By Paul Nsomba
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Persons with Deaf blindness have called on Government and non governmental stakeholders to always involve members of Deaf blind associations in decision making meetings pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic so that these underprivileged people are reached out with right information.
Africa Federation for the Deaf blind (AFDB) president Ezekiel Kumwenda made the remarks in Blantyre during an exercise of distributing corona virus disease personal preventive equipment to the Deaf blind people.
Kumwenda said the Deaf blind society faces a lot of challenges in accessing information management systems put in place regarding prevention of the deadly pandemic.
“Yes, l should point it out here that Deaf blindness has got different levels of challenges these people encounter with when accessing information ,so as such, scheming of information meant these people be tailored based on their level of grasping information,” he explained.
“Deaf blind community has got individuals who are partially sighted and hearing while others are the ones who can hardly see or hear so the designing of means to convey messages on Covid-19 should tally with their level of understanding information rendered, hence there is a need to engage inputs from members representing these people through their associations in order for policy makers implement effective modalities in information management delivery systems.
Kumwenda also added that there is a need to train members of its Associations, who he said later would be sent out to different places spreading messages on the same cause country wide.
On Africa perspective as a continent , said out of 54 countries, only 32 associations are functional posing a challenge yet desired to be looked into critically in addressing woes these people confront.
Answering on the question on what the association has done before in trying to curb the spread of the disease, Kumwenda said that they engaged well wishers who assisted and has transcribed braille containing the information and purchase of personal preventive equipment but are not enough to meet everyone as they are very expensive.
In her response, senior nursing officer for Blantyre District Health Office Mirriam Hanjahanja admitted that indeed there was a gap mainly to reach out to Deaf blind people as the messages were disseminated through print media, radios and TVs , platforms which are difficult to grasp information by Deaf blind society.
Hanjahanja has since assured the Deaf blind people that her office is devising new modalities like putting information in braille.
“I should put a stress here that for Deaf blind people whose mobility rely on relatives to hold by their hand to continue observe and follow procedures initiated by the world health organization and Malawi government meant to contain corona virus disease such as regular hand washing with soap,usage of hands sanitizers, putting on face masks, wearing gloves and social distance” she further more elaborated.
Meanwhile,the recently newly sworn in leadership of government of Reverend Dr Lazerous Mc Cathy Chakwera and his vice Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima has repeatedly appealed to Malawians to trade their business with care as the covid 19 pandemic is fast spread in the country and killing malawians.
The exercise of distributing personal protective equipment was organized by an association called Visual Hearing Impairment Membership Association (VIHEMA) with funding Worth MK2 .6 million from a Dutch based organization known as Stitching Der Blinden.
