This is a test article to see if it isent to the editor

Our donors – at the heart of everything we do.

Last year we held a Wine & Soup function at Durbanville Hills wine estate, for our donors who live in the northern suburbs of Cape Town.

The event was an opportunity to meet some of our donors and show them in person how much we appreciate their support. The Wine & Soup day was the perfect way to do this, because getting together to share soup and wine has long been a custom of friends.

The day also featured a performance by guest artist Andriette Norman, a former Idols contestant.

An enjoyable day was had by all – and we all headed home with taste buds tickled with delicious flavours and spirits nourished with friendship. Now that’s enough to warm the heart!

 Council addresses challenges blind commuters face in Johannesburg

The South African National Council for the Blind, together with some of our member organisations and Mr Zain Bulbulia, the Director of Special Programmes (Disability rights), were invited by The MEC for Community Safety, Ms Nonhlanhla Faith to discuss road safety issues for visually impaired people. Representatives from COSATU were also present.

The purpose of the well-attended meeting was to forge a relationship with the visually impaired community to understand and address their safety needs, particularly road safety challenges and also to integrate and align issues of disabilities in the departmental programmes. The topic of inclusivity and sensitisation in the workplace, regarding visual impairments and the employment of visually impaired persons, were also discussed. SA National Council for the Blind’s CEO Mr Jace Nair said that government was not adequately meeting its own set targets for employing persons with disabilities.

The meeting was held at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Newtown which houses the SA National Council for the Blind’s Dialogue in the Dark exhibition. The tour guides of the exhibition are blind and have great difficulty in accessing safe routes to get to work due to a lack of infrastructure and understanding around the challenges of blindness.

The International Council on English Braille’s (ICEB) Fifth General Assembly is jointly hosted by the SA National Council for the Blind and Blind SA at the Protea Hotel Samrand in Johannesburg, from 6 to 10 May 2012. The conference was opened officially by Dr Joseph Phaahla (see picture above of Dr Joseph Phaahla, Christo De Klerk and Jace Nair)

The conference is proudly sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture.

Click here for live streaming of the conference.

This conference aims to create a standardised braille for a National Braille Policy which we hope will be recognised by government. Our efforts to introduce a high quality braille and brailling standard will put SA on the global map as being innovators and advocators in the field.

ICEB consists of experts from English speaking countries around the world and seeks to improve and standardise the quality of braille across the world. ICEB meets every four years and discusses the challenges and achievements in the field as well as to coordinate efforts to standardise braille. This includes research into braille and input from linguistic experts and topics under discussion also include the use of tactile graphics, braille music notations and mathematic expressions.

The outcome of this conference will map the way forward in braille and related linguistic developments for the next four year period.

Delegations
Each member nation of ICEB may send a delegation of up to four members, at least 50% of whom must be blind. Each delegation of a member nation of ICEB shall have one vote.

Each member nation of ICEB should send a list of the names and addresses of the members of its delegation to the ICEB Secretary, Dr Judith M. Dixon, at least sixty days prior to the commencement of the General Assembly or not later than 7 March 2012.

Observers
Interested observers, both individuals and organisational representatives, are welcome to attend the General Assembly. Observers will have opportunities to speak at the General Assembly, but do not have the right to vote.

Observers are requested to notify the Secretary of their attendance, with their name and address details, at least sixty days before the General Assembly or by 7 March 2012.

Registration
There will be no registration fee for attendees (whether delegates, observers or accompanying persons). Attendees will however be responsible for their own accommodation and meal costs.

Attendees are asked to register with the South African organising committee using the registration form provided by Friday 2 March 2012.
See the link to the registration form below.

ICEB General Assembly Contacts

For further information regarding local arrangements for the ICEB General Assembly please contact Christo de Klerk

For information regarding the conduct of the ICEB General Assembly contact the ICEB Secretary, Dr Judith M. Dixon

Click here to link to the ICEB 2012 website

Francois Jacobs, the first blind athlete to complete all three events at Ironman South Africa (3.8km swim in the sea, 180km cycle and 42.2km run) in 2008, agreed to do the Ironman contest again,but this year he will do it to the Council’s benefit.

We will track his progress and report on our website, social media pages and newsletters. Please join us in supporting Francois to show the world what blind people can achieve.

Watch this space for competitions and more developments related to this event. The Spec Savers Ironman SA will take place on 22 April 2012 in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Thank you Virgin Active SA for being Francois’ official Health & Fitness Partner!

If you want to sponsor Francois, click here.

Brief background:
Francois Jacobs (41), is an enthusiastic, totally blind cyclist with many successful Argus cycle tours behind his name as well as a Comrades’ Marathon. Francois’ guide in the 2008 Ironman was Jurie Krige. This year he will compete with the assistance of, Kevin Willemse who also assisted him in 2011. Francois completed his first event in less than 14 hours – three hours before the cut-off time.

Since then Francois has trained a lot more and is receiving professional training to better his swimming techniques. Francois and Kevin are also training on open water swimming at the well-known Leisure Lakes and they will participate in the Midmar Mile event on 11 and 12 February 2012 as well.

We want to use this opportunity to thank Leisure Lakes for allowing Francois and Kevin to use their facilities free of charge to train and prepare for their swim.

“It is the most amazing feeling to have hundreds of spectators cheering you on by name. There is just no way you can give up.”  These are the words of Francois Jacobs - after his first Ironman SA event. .

Click on the file below to read the article we published in the 2008 Imfama on Francois’ first Ironman.

Join us on our Facebook page for regular updates on Francois’ preparations and to be the first to see the details of our competitions, or see the amount of money he is generating for us on the Do it for Charity website.

The photo with this article is of Francois and his guide, Kevin Willemse finishing the Ironman SA in 2011.

This is the heartfelt letter from Francois to all the people who 'like' his Facebook page in the first two weeks:

"Friends, helpers, volunteers: we salute you

You will have gathered from the number of hits on this FB page that I know a fair amount of people and they, in turn, know a lot of people. But what is not obvious from this is the caliber of some really amazing people who have helped me to get to this poin.t

I think of people such as Pam Reynecke who took on the daunting task of teaching a crazy blind guy how to swim from scratch, with a full-day follow-up swim session by Georgie Thomas, exceptional guide athletes such as Jurie Krige and now Kevin Willemse who were prepared to sacrifice a much faster personal Ironman time to enable me to complete the event. There's Allan Williamson who juggles his schedule to do neighbourhood afternoon runs with me, Theo Coetzee who always manages to find a beer stop along a social cycling route, long-time friend Vanessa Ivorson who once put us up for Ironman weekend when we couldn't afford peak season accommodation tariffs, members from Nico Sterk's training squad who are always willing to give me a ride to swim and track sessions. The list is endless. What they all had in common is that they were confronted with the unknown, and I am sure they must have had misgivings, but they all put their prejudices around blindness aside and gave of themselves to change my life completely.

If this was only my sports-related connections, imagine the length of the list if I had to elaborate on the many people who so generously give of themselves whenever they see a need.

I don't know why they do it, and neither do I think that I'm the only lucky recipient of such unselfish acts of kindness. In fact, they are all around us.
Humans are a proud species and it is not always easy to accept help, but what I am learning from all this is to accept with grace and to assist others wherever I can. It is once we have started giving that we realise that it is often more rewarding than receiving. And when you are presented with the opportunity to give, it is not about returning the favour, but rather to become part of the chain and help whoever you can by whatever means you can.

What a long-winded soapbox soliloquy, when the only thing I really wanted to say was "Thank you" - to all of you.

In case you were wondering, I am completely sober, I promise :-)

And a final thought for now: While I am grateful and humbled by some of your comments, I want to stress that this whole drive is not about me or about you, but about an organisation that also has a large volunteer contingent and which provides essential services to some less fortunate than you or me. I hope that through this campaign we can ensure the continued delivery on some crucial projects that are aimed at the upliftment and advancement of blind individuals.

Thank you very much for your comments on my wall. They are inspirational, and I appreciate every one of them.