Empowerment

Empowerment

Napvid Education Fund

There is an affirmative action plan targeted at the all round empowerment of people with disabilities. Beginning from the elementary education of a child with disability, to the employment or economic empowerment of members of the physically challenged community, the Affirmative Action plan is assiduously pursued to emancipate and capacitate Nigerians with disabilities hitherto deprived and marginalised.

 

Obviously, education contributes to human capital formation and it is a key determinant of personal well-being and welfare. For persons with disabilities as with all persons, education is not only vital in itself but also instrumental for participating in employment and other areas of social activity. The pertinence of the foregoing sentiment led to the Inauguration of an Education Trust Fund NAPVID Education Fund (NEF), on the 2nd of December 2011, to support the education of willing but indigent students with disabilities. Under this scheme, money is   sourced from donors and partners and administered in favour of students who have been denied the vital constitutional right to education. Through this arrangement, several financially disadvantaged students with disabilities now have an opportunity to be empowered through education, not only to become self-sufficient, but to also be better positioned to contribute their quota to nation building. In addition, this fund is geared towards providing assistive educational equipment adaptable for the use of Persons with Disabilities in general.

 

In Nine years of its inception, millions of naira have been expended by the NAPVID Education Fund in scholarships and grants, to put on course the education of over a hundred and sixty indigent students with disabilities at primary, secondary and tertiary levels across Nigeria.

In an economic situation where survival is a daily challenge for many, the burden of coping with a child with disability should not be solely left to families who simply do not have the resources to support. According to the testimonies of some beneficiaries who declared that the crucial intervention of the Education Trust Fund in their lives is the singular reason they were able to get back to school. Thanks to our corporate and individual partners without whose critical partnership this would not have been made possible.

Education (whether formal or vocational), remains the only viable option open to children with Disabilities to be productive, guarantee a meaningful future and equip them to contribute to society. Education is the equalizer between the able-bodied and persons with disabilities. This is why we passionately crave the support of well meaning members of society through donations to the Fund to sustain the annual disbursement of scholarships and grants to deserving indigent students with disabilities.

Employment

At the hub of NAPVID’s objective and standing with Education on all fours, is the empowerment of Persons with Disabilities through gainful employment and economic empowerment. This is to ensure that the vast potentials of this community of persons are harnessed for the common good. In this regard,   government and its bureau, multinational organisations and the organized private sector  should in line with the ‘Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act’, reserve five percent job opportunity in their establishment for persons with disabilities. NAPVID has facilitated the employment 250 physically challenged persons into the core Civil Service at the Local, State and Federal Government level.

Skill Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Counseling.

NAPVID has established a Centre for Skill Acquisition and Rehabilitation (CESAR), and saddled it with the task of acclimatizing and integrating persons with disabilities into society. through rendering of psychosocial counseling, facilitating access to medi care, provision of ambulatory equipments such as wheel Chairs, Tricycles, Clutches and other assistive apparatus in partnership  with other organizations,  acquisition of daily living skills, persons with disabilities are rehabilitated to adapt  to their environment. On our part ,NAPVID through its Education Fund, have sponsored the vocational training of over 120 persons with disabilities. This engagement will be sustained

 

NAPVID has recorded some degree of success in its rehabilitation and counseling services. Some persons who had felt rejected and depressed after acquiring their disability have benefitted from the counselling and rehabilitation CESAR offers. Today, they have regained courage, become useful and wholly integrated into society.

At the moment, Napvid in Partnership with the World Bank through Edo State Community and Social Development Project, as part of their support to vulnerable groups, has established in Benin City, Edo State, COMPUTER/ BRAILLE TRAINING facility and a BRAILLE PRESS to train visually impaired persons in the use of computer and production of  Brailled Educational Materials, the first of its kind in the South south part of Nigeria

The setting up of this computer and Braille training services will guarantee the following:

  • Transcribe into Braille, academic books and other printed materials thereby, making them readily handy to institutions and visually challenged individuals that need them,
  • Train special educators to be skilled in the teaching of computer to the Blind, using Assistive Technology and
  • Ensure that workers and students with visual and other disabilities attain academic and professional productivity through basic computer knowledge in the use of Assistive Technology to function in a regular school or work environment.
  • Help blind persons in employment to retain their jobs and pursue career advancements through the use of Assistive Technology.

 

NAPVID is most grateful to her development partners for coming on board with us.

NAPVID is proud that all its activities and programmes have given disability activism a practical meaning. The journey for NAPVID has only just begun. More lives will be touched and transformed, long before it is through. However, it must be known that the task ahead is indeed huge and the Network alone cannot help fulfill the dream of many members of this group of society all by itself. Indeed for any striking success to be made in the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, practical action must be taken by everyone to make them inclusive of persons with disabilities. Partners, donors and contributors will no doubt be given the chance to work with NAPVID towards a better future for a good percentage of the thirty million Nigerians living with one form of disability or the other.

Government and the organized private sector should as a matter of policy, invest in the vocational training and skill acquisition of persons with disabilities. Financial grants or interest free revolving loan should be extended to accomplished PWDs so that they can invest in enterprise that will make them self-employed and also be able to engage the services of others.