Noel Rukundo
16 May 2005
Kigali — A new website is to be launched this month for blind people, according to Gastone Rusiha, the city vice mayor in charge of social welfares.
The website is to create awareness among the blind on the problems faced by handicapped people in Rwanda, he said during a two-day seminar held at the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda in Kiyovu.
Rusiha did not explain how blind people would access the website.
The vice mayor was accompanied by Dr. James Ndahiro, the head of the umbrella association for the disabled, who said, "This website will provide news on the conditions of people with disabilities".
Part of the plan for the website is to dispel myths on handicapped people, and create a public awareness on the need for special programme to improve on their living standards.
"Many people believe that people with disabilities cannot contribute to development like other people, said Thomas Ongolo, an official from the secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities.
"Our culture has been hindering people with disabilities, making them live without hope. This is not right because disability is not inability," Rusiha said.
The function was also attended by the State Minister for Local government, Christine Nyatanyi, who said most persons with disabilities in Rwanda require special attention because of their unique experiences during the 1994 Genocide.
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