GRAN KAZ HANDS OVER FIRST BATCH OF BRAILLE BOOKS TO MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

In an official ceremony held on Tuesday 17th January 2023 at the SITE, Gran Kaz PR and Communications Manager, Ms. Shama Amesbury handed over Braille Books to the Special and Inclusive Education Unit of the Ministry of Education.

The ceremony was opened by the Minister for Education Mr. Justin Valentin who emphasized the importance of the inclusive programme in ensuring that those students with special learning needs receive a well-rounded education and learning experience.

The ceremony saw the handover of special education needs resources to the unit as well as a donation of braille books.

This donation is a result of one of Gran Kaz’ community outreach programmes, a Charity Book Bazaar that was held at Kenwyn House in September Last year to raise funds for books for visually impaired students.

“The Book Bazaar we held on the occasion of International Literacy Day last September was a huge success! Even with books being sold for as low as 20 – 80 rupees each, we managed to raise a total of SCR 8,153. Gran Kaz then added an extra SCR 10,000 to this and we used these funds to order the books.” Says Ms Amesbury.

The Minister thanked Gran Kaz for this kind gesture, saying that recognising the needs of the students and the ministry and providing for them is a great show of private public partnership.

The handover from Gran Kaz consisted of 19 items in total, including braille books, braille science experiment sets and braille encouragement stickers.  Ms. Amesbury says there are another 49 items on their way to Seychelles, including braille and audio books.

“In total the funds we raised managed to cover the purchase of 89 items from the Royal National Institute of the Blind shop based in the UK. Some items have already been delivered and the rest are on their way, but we wanted to at least hand over what we have so far, in time for the new school year”, says Ms. Amesbury.

Receiving the books on behalf of the department, were 2 student representatives from primary and secondary school respectively.

With the 2023 school year starting next week, the donation came at the most opportune time.