Kenya Institute for the Blind 50th Anniversary celebrations

Visually impaired people will celebrate 50 years of the existence of the Kenya Institute for the Blind (KIB), an institution that has kept hundreds of blind people going.
The Principal of the Institute Rueben Mwanzi said the institution, which produces braille reading materials besides providing educational rehabilitation and training for newly blinded people, will mark 50 years of service to Kenyans on 31st May, 2019.
The institution provides educational resource materials, assistive devices, and information services to learners and persons with visual impairment.
It also provides educational rehabilitation to newly blinded learners and other persons as well as training persons who provided support services to learners with visual impairment.
Mwanzi spoke this at his KIB offices in Nairobi West as part of the preparations for the celebrations Friday. The Principal was flanked by  Board Chairman Mr. Martin Kieti.
He said the Institute had brailed about 400 titles for schools and other materials for government institutions.
“The titles include textbooks, story books and set books for primary and secondary schools,” Mwanzi noted, saying that the institute had also brailed legal and policy documents for the government.
He said the institute had brailed over 50,000 volumes from the printed texts it had been contracted to produce.
He said the blind persons were trained in braille reading and writing skills while sighted persons were also trained in braille reading and writing skills if they request for use in their work with the blind.
Mwanzi said the institute also trains newly blinded persons whose blindness has been caused by disease and accidents in writing and reading braille as well as orientation and mobility.
“We have 14 students on educational rehabilitation and nine employees all of whom need training in braille reading and writing skills to help them continue with their education and employment.
Meanwhile, Kieti said the Board wanted to expand the institute by building a hostel to take care of students on educational rehabilitation and training.
He said the hostel would ease the burden of parents who were forced to pay for accommodation facilities for their newly blinded children who seek training on brail and other assistive devices for the blind.
By Alice Gworo