UNITED BLIND PERSONS OF FIJI 

The United Blind Persons of Fiji (UBP) was established in 1992 by a group of Blind and Vision impaired individual.

MISSION:

The Mission of United Blind Persons of Fiji is to advocate on behalf of blind and vision impairement persons in Fiji, to identify,inform,counsel and refer such persons and their families for appropriate services and to provide such services that are otherwise not available to the membership, to develop and implement ongoing programs of public awareness, to promote blind ness prevention in all areas of society, and to affiliate with and support the efforts of national, regional,and internationally disability organisation and other appropriate bodies in improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities in Fiji.

Since its inception, UBP has a membership of about 300 members, of which 80% actively participate in the programmes and activities of the association. The office of UBP is situated at FNCDP Complex Brown Street, Suva.

NEWS & EVENTS:

White Cane Awareness 2011 

The United Blind Persons of Fiji (UBP) is a non governmental (NGO), disabled people's organizarion that advocates on behalf of blind and visually impaired persons in Fiji.

Established by vision impaired persons themselves in 1992, the organization has grown in size as far as membership is concerned.

every year, UBP conducts its awareness campaign on the importance of White Cane on the month of October which also coincides with the White Cane Safety Day on the 15th of the month. This year the two weeks campaign was launched on the 1st of October by Mr. Setareki Macanawai- Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Disability Forum.


UBP visited five schools ( three Primary and 2 Secondary Schools) as well as a corporate organizarion, of the Fiji Inland Revenue of Customs and Authority (FIRCA).

Overall, the two weeks campaign was a successfull as the team visited all five schools and FIRCA. The team would like to express their gratitude to the head teachers of the following schools:

           * Veiuto Primary School
           * St. Marcelin Primary School
           * Monfory Boys Town
           * William Cross Primary School
           * Ballantine Memorial School

Our gratitude also goes out to Mr. Jitoko Tikolevu- Chief Executive Officer of FIRCA for accepting our request and allowing representatives of various departments to be present during our presentation. 

We also thank the media for coverage during the two weeks (01 - 15 th October 2011). In particular , our thanks towards Fiji Broadcasting Commission (Radio Fiji 1) for a 15 minutes presentation with host Nimilote Naisorotabua.


The closing was held on Saturday 15th October, Mr.Timothy Gill, first secretary who works the Australian High Commission ofice closed the campaign by highlighting the partnership, that AusAID has begun with UBP and wished the organization in success in all their endevours.


ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2011

The United Blind Persons of Fiji held its Annual GeneraL meeting on the 26th of March, 2011 at Raiwaqa Hall from 10.00am to 2.30pm.

The new board of officers for the organisation are:

Lanieta Tuimabu         -    President
Moushmi Narain          -    Vice President
Ana Macanawai          -    Treasurer
Milika Roro                -    Secretary
Rakesh Chand
Anaseini Vakaidia
Ranjesh Prakash
Lydia Bukarau




UBP Board Training on CRPD:

The United Blind Persons of Fiji conducted its awareness for its board members on the CRPD,on 24th June this year. The training was held at the Suva Motor Inn. All members of the board including the office staff were present. The training was faciliated by Mrs. Angeline Chand- Program Officer of Pacific Disability Forum.

Mrs.Chand spoke on issue covering topics such as " Disability Awareness and Human Rights" the different models of disability; an overview of CRPD,convention Timelines, purpose and signatories of the conventions in the South Pacific Region.


Group activities also involved the divisions of members into two groups who worked at simplifying various articles of the Convention.

The day was filled with interaction as Mrs.Chand presented and members asked more questions in which they want to know and learn more about the Convention. The day ended with division of members who were going to be out on the field to conduct similar workshops in the various provincial communities. These workshops will begin in August after the Train the Trainer workshop.



Right to be Blind without being Disabled:

Blindness is an issue which is affecting many citizens of Fiji nowadays. Blindness does not differentiate whether one is a child, teenager,youth,or an elderly,whether one is rich or poor, differences in ethnicity,religion or the type of family background. It can affect anyone.


People react differently towards this disability. Some people are able to move on in life due to factors such as continous family welfare and support, chances of good education the type of immediate surroundings or environment that the individual lives in and so forth. Others may be unfortunate due to factors including how the way the immediate family reacts. For instance, upon visiting a village in the Province of Rewa, it was sad to find out that a man in the village had recently lost his sight due to and accident at work. Upon retiting back to the village,there was no support from his family as the children were married and had to look after their families leaving the man with no choice but to depend on the mercy of the others on the village. other factors also include feelings of shock and despaie in the sudden acquining of such a disability a very late age. Due to these, he was even surprised and had no idea at all about living in his new woeld withour sight. People who also lived near his surroundings had no idea what to do with him or how to treat him since this was the first case within the village setting itself.

In addition to this, the Fiji Government has also signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 2nd June 2010 and in those 50 articles, article 17 - Protecting the Integrity of the Persons states that " Every person with disability has the same right as wveryone else to be respected as a whole person".

This is a very sad situation and , being and advocate on issues for persons with disabilities particularly for persons living with vision impairement, i believe that there should be ongoing community awareness to the people on such issues especially on what to do when there is a sudden incident as such. More awareness should also be targrtted in the rural areas and outer island communities to educate them on such issues.


We would also like to advocate to the people of Fiji that there are nongovernmental disabled peoples organizations (DPO's) organizations that provide support for persons with disabilities- for the physically, visually and hearing impaired, persons confined to wheelchairs, stroke patients, persons suffering from mental disability,etc.

Family members who have a relative who has a disability as such, do seek advie especially on areas of supporting the individual psychologically, emotionally and physically as this is the only way to accepting the individual for who he or she is, rather than seeing the individual with the disability being an extra burden.

Fiji let us hold hands and morally support our people who face such diffucult situations either it be blindness, hearing impairement,a physical, mental disability or persons who ay be confined to wheelchairs.

To the community of persons with disabilities, we end this article with this quote:

         "If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from
           them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not  
           how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit,never
           quit."

  -- Bill Clinton!!!

UBP Visitation to Mr.Hilton Members of the United Blind Persons of Fiji who were the former students of Crippled Children School, who now known as Hilton Special School visited Mr. & Mrs.Hilton on Saturday 21st January at their residents in Suva. The visit brought lots of memories and joy for both Hilton family and UBP members. They were indeed, very delighted with the visitation. Members of UBP were very encouraged and inspired as the Hilton family reminded us all of our beginnings , ans how we started with simple learning tools, and a classroom which, was in a corridor and now were, there's so much of opportunities and resources available to blind and vision impaired students. All in all, this has certainly motivated and empowered us all to advocate and build awareness in our society which can absorb disability issues open heartedly.