Francois Jacobs, Council’s own Ironman completed the 2012 Spec-Savers Ironman event on 22 April at 22:18:25.

Francois' times for the different sections are as follows:

Swimming: 01:45:47

Cycling: 06:32:38

Running: 06:43:51

We are so proud of this totally blind athlete who completed this gruelling event – showing the world what blind people can do, and raising funds for Council in the process - even though Francois became ill during the second lap of the running. He stuck it out and even had to walk for long times, but he kept going and showed that he is truly an Ironman!

Francois, we are very proud of you and are honoured to be associated with you.

We hope you and your guide, Kevin, will have a well deserved rest in the next few days. Thank you so much for what you have done!

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to HumanWare who sponsored Francois and Kevin with clothes to participate in – thank you for investing in blind South Africans!

Also a big THANK YOU to everyone who sponsored Francois on the Do it 4 Charity website and those people who paid their donations into our bank account. We really appreciate it and I know Francois does as well.
 

Click here to see the eNews video about the whole campaign

2012 Senior Management Institute (SMI) Institutional Development Program

The Institutional Development Program of the World Blind Union is pleased to announce the 2012 Senior Management Institute (SMI), an organisational management course on disability and social development.

Dates, Duration and Venue

The 2012 SMI will be an eight-week residential course to be conducted from 20th August to 12th October 2012 at the Optima College of the South African National Council for the Blind, Pretoria, South Africa.

Aim of the Course

The overall aim of the SMI is to provide participants with the knowledge, skills and operational capacity to improve and optimise their organisational practice in the field of disability in development to facilitate social transformation.

Learning Objectives

1. To provide participants with information to stimulate new thinking in program development and service implementation.
2. To share ideas and discuss/debate concepts while exposing participants to a range of service options.
3. To guide participants to explore the complexities of the management of non-governmental organisations in a changing world.
4. To expose participants to the use of technology as a management tool and the role of technology in the social and economic development of persons with disabilities.
5. To provide participants with information to provide analytic reasoning to achieve effectiveness in long term planning and strategic leadership.

Course Completion Requirements

The SMI is a 60-credit course of which 40 credits are earned through workshops, lectures, discussions and presentations, and 20 credits through research, use of the internet and web-CT, assignments, field work, monitoring and evaluation. The course duration consists of 6 weeks of coursework and 2 weeks of field assignment. The successful completion of the course will lead to the award of a Certificate of Competence.

Criteria for Assessment

1. Discussions and Presentations: 10%
2. Assignments (Four assignments at 10% each): 40%
3. Written Test After The First 3 Modules: 25%
4. Final Assignment: Programme Assessment And Presentation: 25%

A minimum of 50% is required for the final mark in order to successfully complete the course.

Teaching Methods

The course pedagogy is geared toward participants and trainers who will learn from one another’s experience via a series of seminars and discussions on lessons derived from praxis. A third of the learning experience shall be though a series of classroom seminars and discussions while two-thirds shall be via research, assignments, critical reviews, self-study, internet and field placement.

General areas of study are based on four modules of management and social development: non-governmental organizational management and leadership, disability policy and social transformation, disability service delivery, and monitoring and evaluation.

Eligible Applicants

This course is aimed at managers/directors, senior personnel and senior volunteers in organisations that provide services for persons with visual disability in developing countries. The course requires individuals who are highly motivated and can work with tight timelines in a fast-paced situation.

Eligibility Requirements

A minimum of five years working in a leadership or management role (as a staff person or volunteer) with an organization of or for the blind or in the field of disability; post-secondary education, demonstration of proficiency in English in a learning environment; basic keyboard skills and familiarity with Microsoft Word is a priority. All participants are expected to have at least a working knowledge of spreadsheets and familiarity with financial statements and accounting procedures.

Notes to Participants

This course will equip participants with the foundational tools and skills requisite of a leader operating in a new environment that demands inclusivity. Such a leader requires strength in three main areas of operation:

1. Skills across a wide facet of management and leadership acumen especially with a sound knowledge of financial and operational management, planning, evaluation and strategic thinking;
2. The capacity to truly understand and communicate change; and
3. The ability to effectively integrate the demands of an organisation with a comprehension of the socio-economic and socio-cultural intricacies of disability and of the society in which you operate.

Financial Information

Individuals who are accepted into the course will have to raise funds to cover tuition, room and board.The total fees for the course, including tuition, accommodation and meals is USD 3,500 payable to the IDP. The IDP may subsidise some of these costs; however, this information will be communicated once the selection process is complete.

In addition, successful applicants will need to arrange for their own travel, including airfare, visas, travel and medical insurance, etc., purchase of equipment, personal expenses, and pocket money.

Application Procedure

The admission process for the SMI is very competitive as the course can only admit up to a maximum of 20 participants. Applicants are therefore advised to adhere to the application requirements. Any incomplete application shall not be considered.

All applicants must submit the following documents as part of their application dossier:

1. The Course Application Form duly completed
2. A detailed CV with detailed information on education and employment history; including dates, qualifications, job titles, responsibilities, etc.
3. Academic and professional testimonials
4. A signed recommendation letter from the employer
5. A short essay of not more than 1,200 words detailing your goals and objectives to be achieved as part of this course. Include your career objectives and your personal and professional interests.
6. A short essay of not more than 750 words describing how the SMI will benefit the goals of your organization/agency when you return to your country.

Applications must be sent to the address below, either electronically or by post, to be received not later than 30th April 2012.

Martin M. Kieti,
Senior Consultant,
Institutional Development Program.
P. O. Box 34690 00100,
Nairobi, Kenya.
E-mail Martin Kieti

Happy birthday to Council's accessible website. It was launched on 14 February 2011 and we have received wonderful feedback.

A happy Valentines Day to all our supporters! We LOVE you!!

Judge Zak Yacoob is Visually Impaired

The South African National Council for the Blind applauds the announcement of Judge Zak Yacoob as Acting Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa. Judge Yacoob served as Chairperson of Council from 2001 to 2009.

Judge Yacoob has been a long standing supporter, advocating for the rights and full inclusion of persons with disabilities. His life and his own disabilities have not hindered his progress to the upper echelons of the legal fraternity. The SA National Council for the Blind welcomes his appointment because we believe in empowering visually impaired people to do what they dare to dream and his achievements have been built upon a foundation of justice, hard work and determination to succeed. These are qualities espoused by many visually impaired people who sadly do not get the chance they deserve to show how they can shine.

We hope that this appointment opens the eyes of all South Africans in showing just how much success and independence visually impaired people can achieve with a little help and guidance, the right access to education, accessible skills development facilities and assistive devices.

On behalf of all the visually impaired South Africans that we, together with our member organisations serve, we wish Judge Yacoob all the best in his new appointment and we are confident that he will prove himself capable of his office.

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.