News
White cane awareness day
The National Federation of the Blind celebrates White Cane Awareness Day annually on 15 October. In Sri Lanka several ceremonies were held to mark the day this year.
In Chilaw the Sri Lanka Sunrise Foundation commemorated the day by organizing a street parade to draw attention and create awareness of the social,economic, cultural, environmental issues and obstacles faced by visually handicapped people. it was also an effort to educate people on blindness and how visually handicapped can be helped to live and work independently.
In Sri Lanka very little has been done to uplift these handicapped individuals, who are mainly dependent on others and are seen begging on the streets.
Employment rates among the visually handicapped continue to be low. Although authorities have identified barriers to employment of blind persons and strategies have been indentified to tackle the problem, in practical terms little has been achieved.
The need of the hour is to create a situation where the visually handicapped can be helped to live independently and with less hurdles to obtaining employment.