Holistic Support and Study Center for Persons with Visual Impairment in Ethiopia –Rehabilitation, Education and Jobs for All!

1. Ethiopian Residents Charity
Organization
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Holistic Support and Study Center for Persons with Visual Impairment in Ethiopia –
Rehabilitation, Education and Jobs for All!

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“Alone we can do so little,
we can do so much!”
(Helen Keller)

3. Introduction and Background
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Country Background
In Ethiopia diseases of the eye are among the major public health problems
of the country.
Ethiopia’s visually impaired population accounts to the
highest in the world.
Main reasons for blindness: inadequate hygienic and lack of getting proper medical
treatment
*Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia: National Survey on Blindness, Low Vision and Trachoma in Ethiopia. September 2006, p. 87.

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 Together! Established by germen and Ethiopian national and registered under
the CSA at march 2014 G.c
 Together is team of professionals with many years of work experience in the
fields of special needs, psychology and adaptive technologies in Ethiopia.
 The current team consisting of mainly Ethiopian staff with and without
disability and three expatriates has been working together for the past years in
the fields of disability mainstreaming, Technical Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) and rehabilitation/psycho-social services.
Together!

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To contribute to the inclusion of visually impaired children and youth, women and
men equally into education and profession and thereby to achieve the realization of
their full potentials and capabilities. This shall also lead to their inclusion into
society through meaningful and sustainable jobs.
Together! The followings are the specific objectives that will be accomplished by the
project, these are :
1. Improve access to education as well as to the vocational and professional sector
2. Support economically and psycho-socially challenged individuals holistically, to
follow up their educational and professional careers
3. Raise awareness on HIV/AIDS, STDs, gender issues and domestic violence
4. Raise awareness of the potentials and challenges of people with visual impairments
among the sighted community
Project Goal

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Study Center for People with Visual Impairment

7. Training center at Together!
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Provide access to adaptively equipped computers and the
Internet, Audio, Braille and (print) ink library.
Learning support for all subjects.
Production and provision of assistant audible and tangible
teaching and learning materials for persons with visual
impairment.
Open resource center for every interested individual with
visual impairment and persons with other impairments.
Free of charge of internet services.

8. The training Includes
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• Short Term Training
• On-the-Job Training
• Mobile Training
• Holistic Training for Children
with Visual Impairment

9. Short Term Training Center
In the center visually impaired young individuals receive
TVET accredited
“Basic Computer Skill Training with Adaptive
Technologies” and also
complimentary skill training like
Braille literacy and Low Vision
 Independent Living skills
 English language, Entrepreneurship skills, and Civics
 HIV/AIDS & reproductive health, gender- and disability
education.
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10. Short Term Computer
Training
Mode of the training persons with visual impartment given
by using different assistive technologies like
Screen Readers
Screen readers are software applications that are installed on the
computer to provide translation of the information on the computer
screen to an audio output format. The translation is passed to the speech
synthesizer and the words are spoken out loud. Currently, fully
functional screen readers are available for visual impaired for instance
ORCA , JAWS (Job Access with Speech),NVDA (Non Visual
Desktop Access)
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11. Screen Magnifiers
Screen magnifiers enable users that are partially sighted to view
selected areas of the screen in a manner similar to using a
magnifying glass. for instance
GMag is a screen magnifier for X Windows. It provides
continuous magnification while work, as well as the option to
change the contrast of images at run-time.
Operating system software's
Vinux Orca
Windows With JAWS
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12. About Vinux
Vinux, is Ubuntu based operating system software
IT is a complete live Linux distribution optimized for blind
and visually impaired users.
It bundles screen readers, full-screen magnifiers, built-in
support for USB Braille displays, and optimized fonts and
colors.
Vinux can be installed to a hard drive like any operating
system software.
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13. Advantages of Vinux for visual
impaired
It is open source and available at free charge
Different from the other operating system software ,it
uniquely designed for visual impaired
It has its own integrated screen reader and magnifiers like
orca
 Additional Accessory software and educational materials are
encompassed
It is free from any computer virus
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14. Challenges using vinux
Unfamiliarity among the computer users
Lack of interests among the computer users for shifting from
the familiar windows operating system to the Vinux duo to
It is new Technology in Ethiopia
Lack of know how about what kind of operating system is
suitable and accessible for visual impaired in Ethiopian context
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15. 2014 short term computer training
graduates
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16. Year Sex Total
M F
2014 6 6 12
2015 6 7 13
Total 12 13 25
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Together! Training Center Trainees with in
two years
With in this challenges and opportunities Together! Train the following
numbers of trainees with windows and vinux in two years

17. The one year Information and Technology/IT Skill Training
is the only TVET based course in this discipline in Ethiopia.
The annually graduates with visual impairment did not only
gain valuable computer know- how for their personal,
educational and professional advancement, but a part of the
group was also the first one to fully pass the external
assessment of the governmental Center of
Competence (COC) adding further credentials to their
professional inclusion.
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Achievements

18. Basic Computer Skill Training for Persons with
Visual Impairment at Inclusive Schools and Blind
Focused Organizations
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Besides in-house computer skill training, Together! facilitates
• 10 certified Computer Skill training beneficiaries provide
computer and complimentary blind- and health skill training
for visually impaired students at 5 educational institutions in
Addis Ababa and Sebata
• serving a minimum number of 305 visually impaired
students and young adults to independently and successfully
cope with their educational and professional duties.

19. Basic Training at Schools and Blind Focused
Institutions (Number of School Students and
Teachers who received training)
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No
Name of School/Blind Focused
Institution
Female Male Total
1 Menelik I Primary School 22 12 34
2 Sebeta School for the Blind 118 86 204
3 Menelik II Preparatory School 26 19 45
4 Tesaye Chora Primary school 1 3 4
5 Addis Ababa University Disability Center 18 8 26
6 Addis Hiwot Center For the Blind 6 4 10
7 Labour and Social Affairs Worda 5 3 1 4
8 Labour and Social Affairs Worda 7 2 1 3
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Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs at city
level
2 3 5
10 Together! 1 1 2

20. On-the-Job Training
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On job Trainers providing computer training at school

21. Together!’s welcomes all persons with disabilities to have access
to Braille library and IT.
 It provides free-of – charge 3 MB internet access, Braille and
audio materials on relevant educational and informational material.
Users can also access information from the e-Granary as well as
from RACHEL, “The Internet in a Box”, an off-line information
store that provides instant access to over 35 million digital
resources.
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Inclusive Resource CentreInclusive Resource Centre

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29. Short Term Training in Orientation and Mobility and Braille
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30. With the rendered IT vocational skill training, networking
efforts and supporting letters of Together! some right holders
found permanent employment and others temporary
employment.
Several external institutions like Ethiopian National Association
of the Blind/ENAB, Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs/MOLSA, NGOs like Addis Hiwot and private persons
paid for the IT training services rendered by Together!s right
holders.
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Income Generation and Job Inclusion

31. Awareness Rising
Together! has been working hard to create and raise
awareness among the sighted community regarding the
challenges and abilities of visually impaired people through
different activities and events.
More than 30 lunches and dinners in the dark was organized
and more than 250 sighted people took part in the programs.
The events received high media coverage by Ethiopian
Broadcasting Corporation, printing press and radio broadcast
so that even the wider society was made aware of the event
and its awareness raising effects.
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32. Art exhibitions, bazaars and public events were
organized to raise awareness among the sighted community.
The Organization’s excellent contribution to solve the
existing problems of the visually impaired community was
given letters of recognitions by the Labour and Social Affairs
of the Ministry and Sub – City level, the German Church and
from ENAB for the conduction of successful computer
training.
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33. Encounters and Events
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Dialogue or Dinner in the Dark
Sighted people are guided and
served by visually impaired waiters
and are animated to experience three
hours with food, music, tactual
exercises and conversation in
complete darkness.

34. Dinner in the Dark – Preparation Time
Eating with Four Senses
Guiding Inverted – Selam Adem
leading Inge Bozenhardt safely back
into the light
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35. Dialogue in the Dark
Preparation of Darkened
Room
Interview of Sighted
Participants “Such events based on
actual experience are more effective
than a lecture on blindness can ever
be.”
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Rehabilitative Shelter for Visually Impaired Women
and their Children

37. Job Integration
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Tadesse Desalegn (English teacher at
a governmental primary school. He is
partially sighted)
„The team of Together! supported me by becoming
a teacher. I wouldn’t have succeeded without their
help by facilitating a scholarship for the quarterly
college fee, transport and living allowance! I love
teaching English.”

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Aster (22 years) and her
daughter Bethi (1.5 years)
Accommodation of Aster and Bethi
here they lived with three more
blind women and a baby of 8
months (February 2013)

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Aster (23 years): “My biggest wish is to learn, to
become a teacher – this is the only way to make
an income for my daughter and me. But I have
no one to look after Bethi and I can not afford
even the house rent let alone the College fee.”

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Kalkidan (17 years)
until recent lived on
the street
„I just came to Addis Abeba. I don’t know anybody here. I am on my own.
But I hope that this city will give me a better chance to live. My little daughter
lives with my father in the countryside.
My biggest wishes are to live with my daughter and to go to school.“

41. Wude (23 years)
“Before I can study well I have to become healthy”
Wude suffers from chronic gastritis and weighs 29 kg. She sells
lotteries on the street and can only afford to eat once a day.
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42. Participatory Planning
for the Rehabilitative Shelter together with single blind mothers and their
children
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43. The Future
 Together! in its pilot phase has to lay the foundation with
special skill trainings in ICT which shall be the basis to
include students with visual impairment to ICT classes.
 With the close cooperation with the Addis Ababa Education
Bureau Together! is meant to document its best practice
approaches and be a focal consulting entity in the preparation
of a IT curriculum for the blind which can easily be
implemented by sighted and blind teachers.
Together!s graduates shall serve as important ICT know-how
multiplying experts being role models for their blind
younger comrades at the same time.
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44. Together! follows a twin track approach, i.e.
working on the vision of an inclusive society by engaging in
inclusive activities (Resource Room, engagement of national
and international volunteers, sighted and blind cooks in the
dinner in the dark program etc.)
conducting special skill trainings for visually impaired people
by focusing on their different abilities and ways of overcoming
challenges
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