Egypt has launched a project in Information and Communication Technologies ICT aimed at empowering Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in Africa.
Over 120 African youth have so far benefited from a fully funded ICT project which entailed a comprehensive training program coordinated by the National Academy of Information Technology for persons with disabilities (NAID) in Cairo.
Under the fully funded grant beneficiaries have so far taken courses in two batches of 60.
The trainees were drawn from countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and Zanzibar.
The project is a presidential initiative from Egyptian President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat is hopeful beneficiaries will become useful to their countries after the training.
One of the participants, Faraja Jerry from Tanzania said “The Egyptian government must be commended for this initiative.
PWDs has been given little attention when it comes to education and for the President of Egypt to initiate ICT training for us on a full grant where applicants don’t pay anything to attend is something we must applaud.”
Faraja who became blind in 2012 after a short illness said “when I became blind, for 5 years I stayed indoors didn’t want to talk to anybody. But in the last two years I have come to accept the condition and I am coping.”
One other participant from Ghana, Catherine Nonome said “Most of us participants are students and are entrepreneurs so taking us through e- marketing was very important for some of us.”
Source: Africafeeds.com