For several years now, we at SAMBT have been working towards enlarging our team of four fulltime practitioners at SAMBT.
We are grateful to Absa, for their funding which allows us to employ two recent Orientation and Mobility graduates each on a one year fixed term contract.
For Tsholofelo Modikoe and Yonela Msoki, our two new colleagues, these contracts at SAMBT, are their entry positions into the profession.
Their excitement as they start their career paths at SAMBT as professional O&M practitioners is palpable.
But let’s put Tsholofelo’s and Yonela’s employment into perspective.
There are over one million blind people in South Africa.
One fulltime practitioner trains about 50 blind and partially sighted people in one year.
There are only around 50 practitioners working in South Africa. So if we quickly make the sums, together, these 50 practitioners can train about 12 500 per year. It is clear that the need for independence training is vast!
We need to help the College at SA Guide Dogs, to train many many more O&M practitioners.
And then we need to create jobs for these qualified practitioners.
We owe this, to the independence of blind and partially sighted people in our country.
So welcome Tsholo and Yonela. Read more about them here and here. (hot links under our team)
And should you be able to fund the training and employment of practitioners, please contact us on info@sambt.org.za.
