The Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled (LNFOD) has teamed up with Unicef to advocate for the effective implementation of the Lesotho Inclusive Education Policy which was adopted by the ministry of education and training in 2018 and launched in August 2019.
The policy seeks to promote implementation of inclusive education in which all children including those with disabilities have access to education on the basis of quality and non-discrimination.
In 2020, the element of taking into account Covid-19 has been incorporated into the partnership agreement in which LNFOD is expected to produce Covid-19 health preventive measures in all accessible formats including braille, easy-to-understand formats and sign language. The Covid-19 health related messages are designed to be distributed among different schools and communities in which children with disabilities live and do not learn because of the closure of schools in March this year due to the pandemic.
The intervention responds to one of the gaps which have been identified by LNFOD through its Covid-19 survey which revealed that the government of Lesotho through its Covid-19 decision making processes does not include disabled people, and information is not produced in accessible formats, thereby increasing the risk of persons with disabilities being infected.
One thousand and two braille cards for the blind and partially sighted people have been designed and are in the process of distribution. Easy to read messages for children with intellectual disabilities have been designed, too, and LNFOD through its partners has started the distribution process.
