About 20 visually-impaired fellows were, at the weekend, empowered during a virtual leadership and technology boot-camp organised by Initiative for National Growth Africa (INGA) in partnership with Peace First Organisation.

The theme of the project was tagged: ‘Vision Impaired, Yet Digitally Equipped 2.0,’ which was borne out of the need to provide career development opportunities for the special needs community while leveraging on the information resources and tools provided by professionals.

They had the opportunity to integrate with real life methodology and techniques to improve their emotional intelligence, enable an adaptive and assistive technology-based approach to their professional and personal goals, enable them become internet entrepreneurs, access local and international grant opportunities, improve their personal finances and engage with design-thinking methodology for their career development.

The programme not only focused on enhancing the digital literacy of the vision impaired fellows, but also exposed them to empowerment tools that would develop leadership skills, which expose them to skills acquisition and employability opportunities during the COVID-19 era.

The Project Team Lead of INGA, Racheal Inegbedion, stated that the boot-camp was a clear path of preparing the visually-impaired young adults for employment opportunities and entrepreneurial activities related to technology as well as business during the global pandemic.

She said: “The pandemic has taught us to expand our technology based solutions for the special needs community, especially for visually impaired persons who have limited access to technology based opportunities. The visually impaired fellows will be provided access to mentorship support as well as information resources provided by the partners and professional experts of the boot-camp.”

Some of the experts are Rachel Christensen, Assistant Director of Programmes for The Brink Small Business Development Centre, University of San Diego; Andrea Calderón, Programme Associate of Peace First Organisation; Temitope Richard-Banji, human capital specialist at Deloitte West Africa; Tosin Oyebolu, CEO of Metal Interactive Hub Limited; Rasak Adekoya, Programme Lead of the Sight Savers Organisation and Racheal Inegbedion, Project Team Lead of INGA.

INGA is a civil society organisation that provides assistive technology, rehabilitative technologies, advocacy, capacity building, health support services, career development and entrepreneurship to promote the social and economic wellbeing of persons with disabilities in Africa.

Peace First is an organization located in the United States that empowers young people ages 13-25 to create a peaceful world by providing digital tools, community support, start-up funding, and stories that celebrate their journeys and impact.