A non-profit organization, Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation, has distributed writing materials such as books and pens to students with disabilities (blind, deaf, and mobility challenged) in Ignatius Ajuru University in Rivers State.

Other assistive devices distributed to the students in the Special Education Department of the university were laptops, tape recorders, braille slates and styli, typewriters, wireless keyboards, and guide canes for the blind.

According to a statement issued by the Foundation on Monday, the items were distributed as part of activities to mark the organization’s 12th anniversary on February 4, 2023.

The Guest Speaker, Dr Emmanuel Thompson, who is a lecturer in the Special Education Department of Ignatius Ajuru University and a former beneficiary of KIR Foundation in the Special School for Handicapped Children, urged the attendees to pursue their dreams without giving excuses.

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“We cannot succeed in life if we allow our excuses to bury us while we are still alive,” he said.

The Volunteer Executive Director of KIR Foundation, Bitebo Gogo, urged the students to focus on their abilities and maximise the opportunities they have access to succeed in life.

Gogo also called on stakeholders in the country to embrace disability inclusion and ensure that the Disability Act of 2018 is implemented in Nigeria, adding that a disability-inclusive Nigeria would be a more developed, prosperous, and empathetic country.

She further stated that the Foundation has worked with over 180 institutions across Nigeria and Ghana.

Speaking at the event, the Head of Department, Special Education, Prof. S.N Ordu, thanked KIR Foundation for hosting the event in the university.

Ordu also thanked the Foundation for promoting disability inclusion in society and supporting the disability community, adding that it is a fundamental human right of people with disabilities to be properly integrated in society.

One of the students, Emmanuella, who got a typewriter, said: “It requires a lot of money for students with disabilities to succeed in school and they need all the help they can get.”

KIR Foundation also celebrated its 12th anniversary with a special hangout in the KIR Foundation Inclusive Community Centre in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, as the blind and visually impaired students got 6 typewriters, 6 guide canes, 4 wireless keyboards, 2 braille slates, and styluses.

The Star