Shining light for those living in the dark
IMAGINE crossing a busy street with your eyes closed, your body surrounded by a myriad sounds that are bouncing off things you have never seen.
The blind do it every day and now you can catch a glimpse into their world by participating in the Eye Can Walk fund-raiser, courtesy of the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society.
This week several social media influencers stepped forward as ambassadors for the event, promising to get as many people as possible to participate on October 9.
The organisation’s president, Veetha Sewkuran, said the aim of the event was to raise much-needed funds as well as create awareness of the challenges faced by the visually impaired.
The Eye Can Walk event is a two-person team challenge over 5km or 8km on the Durban beachfront.
Sewkuran said one member of the team would be blindfolded for half of the distance and led by the other person, before the roles were reversed.
She said each person would pay R70 to enter, and apart from the unusual experience, they would also receive a T-shirt, medal and a mask to blindfold themselves.
This is the 4th Eye Can Walk event – the first three were between 2017 and 2019, but it was put on hold for two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Sewkuran.
“The ambassadors will promote it on their platforms and I’ll be happy to get 1 500 participants,” she said.
Anand Naicker, chief co-ordinator of Eye Can Walk, said there were layers of applications which had to be done to pull off an event of this nature.
The requirements were as stringent as those of a 10, 20 or 42km race, he said.
“What you see on the day is the end product of sheer hard work,” said Naicker, who was also the official race referee of the Comrades Marathon.
Mishan Valjee, from JMV Textiles, who represents the Rockstreet lifestyle clothing brand, has donated the T-shirts since the inception of the challenge and will do so again this year.
For details call 031 309 4991 or email fundraising@bdskzn.org.za