Annual Report 2019
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Nepal Association of the Blind (NAB) Organizational StrengtheningProgram Annual Report 2019 Prepared By: Submitted to: Nepal Association of the Blind Norwegian Association of (NAB) the Blind (NABP), Norway Sukedhara, Kahtmandu Ph: +977 1 4376598, 4376580 Fax: +977 1 4378622 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.nabnepal.org Computer training to BPS youth Vocational training to BPS female Braille Literacy to recent blind Participants of political rights training taking Rally in Kathmandu on International Training for elected representatives on note on braille Disability Day inclusion of BPS people Annual Report (January-December, 2019) Introduction NAB has been established in 1993 to work for the protection and promotion of rights and interests of the Blind and Partially Sighted (BPS) people in Nepal. It is also affiliated with World Blind Union (WBU) and Asian Blind Union (ABU), Social Welfare Council and National (SWC) Federation of Disabled Nepal (NFDN). It has now 7 Province Committees, 57 district branches and 30 Municipal Level branches throughout the country with more than 3000 active members. NAB Programs: With the support of NABP, organizational strengthening of NAB project has been running since 1998 with the objective to strengthen the self-help movement of the blind people in Nepal. As part of organizational strengthening, NAB has been running inclusion projects in five districts: Ilam, Gorkha, Surkhet, Kailali and Sindhupalchowk since 2016. Rehabilitation program has been running since 1998. Till date, the program has been completed in Chitwan, Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi, Dang, Rupendehi and Bardia. The program started in Makawanpur and Mahottari since 2016. has been started in Rupandehi in collaboration with NDFN for 3 yrs with the support of Sense International. This report covers the major initiatives and achievements made throughout the year 2019 by Organizational Strengthening program of NAB with some additional information about the achievements made in other areas of organizational works that support in creating synergy to achieve NAB's goals and objectives. 1 1.Gender 2019 NAB always gives high priority towards the issues of gender and takes the actions to ensure gender equality and balance. In the year 2019, following initiatives are accomplished to ensure the inclusion of women and other marginalized groups among BPS people. A) Leadership Opportunity and Representation Challenge: BPS Female representation in the top leadership level is little low compared to their male counterparts. Mitigation: NAB Constitution has a provision of 33% women reservation for the BPS females in Board while the same is applicable in the district boards. In Central Board, 1 post of Vice-President and 5 member seats are reserved for women.To ensure the inclusion of marginalized and ethnic groups, NAB constitution has a provision of one seat reservation for Madhesi, one seat for Dalit and one seat for ethnic group. The current executive board comprises of 17 members with 6 females (64.70% M 35.30%F). There is a provision of 40% women's representation in the General and Annual Assembly.NAB has now practiced Province Level representationinstead of direct district branches. Out of 59 representatives of the Annual Assembly 2019, 25 were female (57.62%M 42.37% F). Female participation has been ensured in the Province Committees and district branches board as well. In 2019, except for Province 3, all other Province Committees hold their first General Assembly and elected new board. Female representation is practiced as per NAB Constitution. List of Provincial Committees of NAB is given in the annex. (See annex 1). With the extra funding from NABP Norway, NAB conducted Province Level training/orientation to the elected representatives of 10 municipalities in 7 provinces. For the purpose, NAB appointed 12 (9M 3F) facilitators. The 2 facilitators of Baglung Municipality, Gandaki Province were solely BPS females. With the support of UNDP Electoral Support Project (ESP) carried out a project for promoting the political and electoral/voting rights of BPS people. Gender has been taken in consideration while implementing the project as under: o A committee has been formed to provide input and feedback on the blind friendly BRIDGE course model training manual with 14 persons including 3 females. o Four BPS female have been mobilized as the facilitators for province level training conducted for BPS people. Two days leadership development and organizational management training was conducted in Tanahu for the board members and general members of NAB Tanahu branch in February. Out of 35 participants 13 were females. Two BPS females who were supported by NAB in 2018 for the training in India have started their own organization in 2019 after returning back to Nepal and now doing various activities for the BPS people, especially women. The afore mentioned initiatives help BPS female to come forward and take the leadership position in the organizational level as well as in the community level. Yet, the BPS female leadership is not as strong as it needs to be. For that, continuous effort is needed. B) Participation and Beneficiary Level Opportunity Challenge: BPS female lag behind their male counterparts and show low presence in the social, economic and political activities. They are in triple discrimination: a) discrimination against disability, b) discrimination against women, and c) discrimination against women with disability. They have low access over the training and other learning opportunities. 3 Mitigation: NAB's programmes and activities are guided also by the Gender Policy Document apart from its Constitution and Strategic Plan. Hence, the participation of BPS female is highly considered in every activities conducted by NAB at both central and programme areas. In 2019 also, special women sensitization programs were conducted in each 5 project districts. Out of 118 participants, 90 were female, i.e., 76.27%. In overall the participation of women in province level training on "Political and electoral/voting rights of BPS people" supported by UNDP ESP was more than 38%. Out of 533 participants, 205 were the females who actively took part in all the training sessions. BPSfemale students were considered highly while providing the scholarship and educational support: o Out of 23 college level students supported with scholarship, 11 were female, i.e. around48%. o Out of 74 students who received slate/stylus in 5 districts, 29 were female, i.e. around 40%. o Out of 82 braille paper recipients, 46 were female, i.e. 56%. o Out of 16 BPS people provided with computer training, 10 were female, i.e. 62.5%. o Out of 126 BPS youths oriented on the use of Nepali OCR software, 48 were female, i.e. 39%. In rehabilitation activities as well, BPS females are considered with high priority: o Out of 73 total blind receiving the white cane from 5 project districts, 37 were female, i.e. more than 50%. o 139 females out of 262 people received various vocational trainings through 5 project districts, i.e., 53%. o Special vocational training was conducted for 9 BPS female at central level (100%). 4 o Seed fund was provided to 23 BPS with Rs. 10,000.00 each from Central Office with Government support. Out of them 9 were BPS female, i.e., 39.13%. o In two project districts goats were provided to 9 BPS people. Out of them 5 are females, i.e., more than 55%. C) Hostel facility for BPS females: Challenge: BPS people lag behind their sighted counterparts in education and the status of BPS female is even worse. At first hand, most of the BPS female are deprived of education. If they get enrolled at school level, then also the chance of dropping out is high when they grow up to their late teens. So, very few of them continue higher level education. In most cases, parents don't allow their blind daughters to go far away for studies and if they do also, there is always a security threat. In the other hand, it is very difficult for BPS female to find the rooms in rent in the cities. Mitigation: Realizing the need of support to the BPS female who come to Kathmandu city seeking educational, occupational and other opportunities, NAB has been running a women hostel for BPS female since 2001 and that has been continued till date. Staying in the hostel, the BPS females get socialized by mixing up with fellow friends from various social, geographical and cultural backgrounds. This helps them overcome the feeling of awkwardness and isolation. The students continue their higher level education without tension and their family members are also ensured about their security. For the new comers, if they don't know about orientation & mobility and daily living skills, they are trained by the care takers and fellow friends. Peer learning environment keeps them motivated. They can do combine studies, low vision friends help them read out the texts. Sometimes the volunteers come to NAB and they are mobilized for supporting the hostel students to read out and record the texts. 5 38 BPS (26 total blind and 12 low vision) female received hostel facility throughout the year as under: a) 10+2: 11 (6 total blind and 5 low vision) b) Bachelor level: 22 (17 total blind and 5 low vision) c) Master level: 2 (1 total blind and 1 low vision) d) Computer students: 2 (1 total blind and 1 low vision) e) Volunteer: 1 (low vision) Staying there in hostel, they seek for scholarship support and job oriented trainings. It will be easier for them to find the job later after completing their levels of education. They also get the opportunity for computer training as well as orientation on assistive technologies conducted from time to time by NAB. In 2019, the following opportunities were grabbed by the hostel students: a) 1 BPS female got employed as government school teacher b) 2 BPS female got opportunity for one year job guaranteed message training in Kathmandu.