JEDDAH, 24 June 2007 — The Prince Sultan Charitable Foundation recently trained more than 62 visually impaired students in collaboration with the Computer Club for the Blind in Jeddah.
While discussing the activities of the foundation, Prince Faisal ibn Sultan, secretary-general of the Prince Sultan Charitable Foundation, told Arab News yesterday that the foundation’s priority is to serve the people with special needs. One of its primary goals is to make the disabled students get maximum benefit from educational and rehabilitation programs.
“The foundation has adopted a program to offer university education to students with special needs,” Prince Faisal said.
The foundation has also set up a library of audio records of books in general and university textbooks and syllabi in particular for the benefit of the disabled.
Prince Faisal expressed satisfaction at the tendency of the charity organizations and government departments to offer quality service in protecting and rehabilitating the people with special needs.
He said: “Their efforts have brought about positive results such as prompting the disabled people to bring out their productive potentials and integrating them with the social mainstream.”
The services of the charitable organizations include taking steps to cure the disabilities of the people with special needs besides educating, training and rehabilitating them. These charitable organizations also attempt to create a public awareness about disabled people’s importance in society.
The prince referred to a new scheme announced by the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) to launch an academic program aimed at offering university level computer courses and other useful courses to students with hearing and visual impairment.
“The scheme is an indication of the level of the maturity and progress achieved by the Kingdom in the care for the section with special needs,” he said.
It also shows GOTEVOT’s confidence in the capabilities of the disabled sections, he added.
The Prince Sultan Charitable Foundation has also signed an agreement of cooperation with the Ministry of Education to launch a program for “the early intervention” in the case of children with special needs, the prince said.
The diverse activities undertaken by the foundation includes its support for research on various mental diseases related to the disabled people. It also offers studentships for studies related to people with special needs in collaboration with the Arabian Gulf University.
The foundation also organizes, or cooperates in organizing, conferences and forums related to the people with special needs and publications related to them.
