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Dancehall musician Stonebwoy has committed to raising funds to purchase white canes for the blind and partially sighted community in the Ashanti region.
The Putuu Hitmaker made the spontaneous pledge when Ultimate FM’s Ivan Heathcote – Fumador approached him to give an endorsement with the white cane ahead of the International White Cane Safety Day.
Out of the over 5000 members of the Ghana Blinds Union in the Ashanti Region, the latest needs assessment saw over 4,700 expressing their dire need for white canes.
The tool which helps in the mobility of persons with disability is sold at the Ghana Blinds Union Resource Center at 70 cedis per copy, a price far outside the economic reach of several visually impaired persons in the region.
This has rendered several persons living with blindness, incapable of travelling around freely to realize their full potential.
Stonebwoy gave four hundred cedis on the spur of the moment and pledged to ensure that he takes up the challenge to purchase more of the canes for the Ghana Blinds Union to distribute to its members.
He cautioned drivers, street hawkers and the citizenry at large to respect, allow passage and offer help to all persons who they find walking with white canes.
“Let me use this opportunity to let all people know that once you are alive, you have not escaped disability because we are prone to injuries and accidents. We have to give priority to persons with disability,” he averred
Advising drivers, He admonished “if you see these white canes with the red marks on it, you should know that these are people who are visually impaired and you have to accord them such respect to the maximum.”
Stonebuoy further pleaded with hawkers who have taken over the pedestrian walkways, as well as the general public to be considerate to the plight of the blind and partially sighted in Kumasi.
The Ghana Blinds Union in the Ashanti Region is taking advantage of the week’s world sight day and white cane safety day, to solicit funds from the public to purchase as many white canes as people are touched, to share among its members.
The donation from Stonebwoy and his commitment to this course gives this campaign a bigger push.
Source: Ivan Heathcote – Fumador
