The Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted (NABP) and AFUB have joined hands to bring up to par our Lusophone member organisations that have historically been at a disadvantage due to the language barrier. We are excited to have on board, and for the first time, a perfectly bilingual program officer who will be managing the project and serving as a focal point for our Portuguese and Spanish-speaking membership.

We can’t wait to see our member organisations in Angola, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome & Principe all empowered and able to advocate for the rights of visually impaired persons in their respective countries!

Three of the six countries targeted in this project (Angola 146, Guinea-bissau164, and Mozambique 165) rank at the bottom quartile of the UNDP Human Development Index while Cape Verde 118, Equatorial Guinea 117, and Sao Tome and Principe 127 belong to the medium human development countries.

 AFUB’s External Summative Evaluation Report of 2009 shows that, due to their historical linguistic marginalisation, these countries share the same challenges: With an estimated one million population of persons with visual impairment, our Lusophone member organisations are still grappling with weak structures and inadequate advocacy skills that undermine their capacity to deliver the needed services and advocate for the rights of their membership base.

Our first project milestone on roll-out will be to organise a forum that brings together our members in these six countries to chart a participatory road map for a comprehensive demand-driven project plan!