SYRIA: ICT center for the blind launched in Salameya

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

DAMASCUS, 11 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Syria launched on Wednesday an information and communications technology center to help rehabilitate the blind in Salameya city, about 350 kms north of Damascus.

A statement by the UNDP said setting up the center in Salameya, in the governorate of Hama, comes within the framework of the regional project titled Information and Communication Technology in the Arab Region for the Blind (ICTARB).

The initiative is part of a larger programme for spreading ICT throughout the entire region, called the Information Communication Technology for Development in the Arab Region (ICTDAR).

The current project is aimed at integrating the blind into society and giving them access to job opportunities.

According to statistics from the Syrian Ministry of Social Affairs, the number of visually impaired people in the country is about 55,000, aged between 10 and 30. Hama alone has 612 people who qualify as visually impaired.

"These numbers… make ICTARB’s initiative an important one in Hama and Syria in general," UNDP said. Another center will be opened in Ma’rat el-Nouman in the Governorate of Idleb, about 450 kms north of Damascus.

Hisham el-Najar of the UNDP office in Damascus explained that they had provided technical and financial aid to the centre, adding that it was part of a project which focuses on using information technology and communications in rural areas.

"The main goal … is to give the blind an opportunity to have access to Internet, create jobs and help them participate in social and economic development," he said.

The UN agency is developing an agreement with the Syrian Computer Society to spread the centers throughout the whole country, especially in rural areas.

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