The Voice (Francistown)
Zeph Kajevu
18 March 2008
Francistown — The Cheshire Foundation Botswana (CFB) and Leonard Cheshire Disability Southern Africa Regional Office will soon establish "Young Voices Project" (YVP), safeguarding the rights of young people living with disabilities in four regional countries.
Jean Munandi, Botswana project rehabilitation coordinator, explained that this is a project for the 15 to 16 age groups that will be hosted simultaneously in Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe from 2008 to 2010. It has been designed to domesticate the United Nations Convention on the rights of disabled through empowering them with life skills.
During the UN Convention Young Voices Follow-up Workshop held in Gaborone this week, Munandi explained: "Hosting countries and members of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Global Alliance are entitled to conduct programmes focusing on people with disabilities to improve their quality of lives, with each forming three groups with youths representing the different disability types." The projects include a communication model involving the translation into the respective languages spoken in the four countries in text, Braille, tactile communication, accessible multimedia, audio, alternative modes and formats conforming to existing communication technologies.
Each of the member countries would send a disabled representative from YVP to attend the Global Conference in Ethiopia in May - a forum to express emergent issues. To this end, the CFB was expected to, within the two-year timeframe, request the Ministries of Education and Labour and Home Affairs to improve access for people with disabilities in both the learning and work environment.
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