MUSCAT -- The visually impaired in Oman would step into the next level of empowerment with the opening of Al Noor Association's largest and also its second-ever independent facility in Nizwa, Al Dakhiliyah Governorate, today. The OR 375,000 facility, which will be the first-ever NGO project to be financed entirely by the private sector and also the first-ever Al Noor branch to have full-fledged vocational training facilities in Oman, will be opened by Dr Madeeha bint Ahmed al Shaibaniya, Minister of Education, this morning. Al Noor was operating from a rented facility in Nizwa and this is the first time it is moving into its own independent premises.
The facility is expected to play a vital role in providing educational and rehabilitation services for the visually impaired, not only in Al Dakhiliyah Governorate, but also for the whole of Oman, Al Noor officials told Observer yesterday. The Nizwa facility is regarded as a centre that would attract people with visual impairment for learning specialised skills and also help them avail of available assistive technologies. "The IT lab is fully set up at the Nizwa premises. We are also ready to start training. We have almost 40 blind students in colleges and universities all around the Sultanate. Our main purpose now is to prepare them for the job requirements. We are talking to banks, insurance companies and airlines," Barka al Bakry, one of the founders of Al Noor, told Observer. "The training has to be very specific and focused. We are now looking at trainers to run the courses as well. We are exploring new avenues for work such as data entries, translators and IT professionals.
The Ministry of Manpower has agreed that if companies have committed to employ a blind trainee after the course, the ministry will provide the finance for their training course and even the allowance for the trainee, provided the curriculum is also approved by the ministry of manpower. I am really grateful to the ministry of manpower," Barka said, adding that Nattiq International was their consultant. "We are also looking for residential trainers," she noted. The dream project took three years to materialise and is an achievement for the private sector as the full OR 375,000 fund for the project is completely financed by various private sector organisations, making it one of the first NGO projects of its magnitude, Barka said. The building has facilities for training, conducting events and also provides accommodation for the trainees.
While the board and the respective members are elated with the latest feat, there is more exciting news from the Ministry of Manpower (MoP). If a private organisation is committed to hiring a visually impaired individual, and if the training curriculum is up to the approval of the MoP, the ministry will finance the training and provide allowance for the trainee, Barka further noted. Established in 1997, Al Noor Association for the Blind is a non-governmental organisation with an objective to serve the interest of the visually impaired in the Sultanate depending on donations and charity to run all its programmes and activities. "It strives to empower persons with visual impairment intellectually, economically and socially by offering various services," said Shaikha Al Jassasi, a member of Al Noor.
"Truly our aspirations are fulfilled by the establishment of this facility. It will gather all of us who are visually impaired under one roof. We will organise events and activities to serve our needs where we will share ideas, expertise and knowledge in many topics related to loss of vision. We hope that this facility will be one of the greatest sources of human development in the Sultanate," Jassasi enthused. Meanwhile, it is learnt that the funding has come from other individual voluntary efforts also. For instance, the staff of Bank Muscat has pooled in around OR 17,500, which has served in financing the IT lab, sources said.
© Oman Daily Observer 2014
