{"id":205293,"date":"2021-10-16T04:26:32","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T02:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=108741"},"modified":"2021-10-16T04:26:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T02:26:32","slug":"wheelchair-wednesday-takes-on-barriers-of-blindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wheelchair-wednesday-takes-on-barriers-of-blindness\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheelchair Wednesday takes on barriers of blindness"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_108742\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-108742\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?attachment_id=108742\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"201\" class=\"wp-image-108742 size-thumbnail lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/wheelchair-wednesday-takes-on-barriers-of-blindness.jpg\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-108742 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/wheelchair-wednesday-takes-on-barriers-of-blindness.jpg\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"201\"><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-108742\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nkosinathi Foundation resource development officer Anne-Marie Stephenson with colonel Tony Nomdoe (in the chair) and constable Delandro van der Kuil of the Kabega Park Police Station at the Wheelchair Wednesday launch. Van der Kuil is wearing the simulation glasses to experience what it is like to be visually impaired. Photo: Leon Hugo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The SPAR Wheelchair Wednesday campaign is celebrating its 10th anniversary by broadening the scope of its market to include the visually impaired sector of society this year.<\/p>\n<p>Managed by the Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities Nelson Mandela Bay, the project aims to make a difference in the lives of the disabled by donating wheelchairs and raising awareness of the daily challenges they face.<\/p>\n<p>In the second weekly rollout yesterday at SPAR Fig Tree in Charlo, participants spent 67 minutes in a wheelchair to complete the everyday tasks set for them.<\/p>\n<p>SPAR promotions and events manager Alan Stapleton said they had worked towards extending their influence to other sectors in recent times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor many years we focused on those who needed wheelchairs, but last year we added the collection of walking aids for the Amputee Support Group and now we are taking it one step further by incorporating the Nkosinathi Foundation to embrace the visually impaired,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe helpers during Wheelchair Wednesday month wear simulation glasses, which give them a feel what it is like for a person who is going blind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Nkosinathi Foundation has been operating for eight decades after a group of blind people who felt vulnerable and alone got together to help each other \u2013 and with a mission to break the barriers of blindness.<\/p>\n<p>Anne-Marie Stephenson, the foundation\u2019s resource development officer, said they had been able to assist thousands of blind and partially sighted people in Gqeberha.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNkosinathi means \u2018God is with us\u2019 and God certainly has been with the foundation over its 80 years of existence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe value of support groups is well-known and this group grew into an 80-year-old body that is a registered non-profit organisation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to thank SPAR and APD for inviting us to join this amazing campaign; we really appreciate the sharing. We all have to work together to make the world a better place and that includes the disability sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stephenson said Nkosinathi\u2019s approach was to focus on the rehabilitation of the person who was affected as opposed to doing research into blindness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe work to try to integrate people back into communities and to find employment because it\u2019s a very lonely place when you are blind,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to help them get their self-respect back and we need our communities to respect them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem is that society creates the barriers because sometimes we don\u2019t make our amenities user-friendly for the visually impaired.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the foundation has a mission to educate our communities and to help them understand what it is like, both physically and mentally, to be visually impaired.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stephenson added that the organisation focused on early detection screening methods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNkosinathi is working towards creating awareness of losing your sight as 80 per cent of blindness can be prevented by early detection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the help of an overseas funder we are doing a lot of early detection screenings, in the metro and further afield, to help to discover conditions that can save a child\u2019s eyesight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said the simulator glasses used during the Wheelchair Wednesday campaign would give participants a good idea of what it was like to be visually impaired.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will make you aware of how frustrating it is and how vulnerable you feel from both a physical and psychological aspect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen you will begin to understand how any disabled person feels and perhaps this will help in some way to change the way the world sees blindness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/contact\/featured\/\">CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-pagination pagination\">Pages: <span class=\"post-page-numbers current\" aria-current=\"page\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>1<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/wheelchair-wednesday-takes-on-barriers-of-blindness\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\">Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nkosinathi Foundation resource development officer Anne-Marie Stephenson with colonel Tony Nomdoe (in the chair) and constable Delandro van der Kuil of the Kabega Park Police Station at the Wheelchair Wednesday launch. Van der Kuil is wearing the simulation glasses to experience what it is like to be visually impaired. Photo: Leon Hugo The SPAR Wheelchair [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021,3330],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-205293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"category-port-elizabeth","9":"tag-mypr","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/wheelchair-wednesday-takes-on-barriers-of-blindness.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}