A cook book for the visually impaired

In light of Disability Awareness month, the South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF), has launched a braille budget beaters recipe book.

Saffura Khan,SANZAF Durban’s head of development said the book would be a tool that could aid in food insecurity with the organisation having discovered through a survey that there were too many mouths to feed but with too little food. It was launched in Durban and Cape Town.

“Food security was always one of the major concerns of SANZAF. Consequently an economic survey was conducted with recipients and other relevant personnel. This survey revealed that the average income for the recipient families is between R1 500 and R3 500 and after payments of rental, electricity, water and transport, the amount available for providing meals to the family is approximately R1 200. In reality, this amounts to approximately R40 per day which is a daunting challenge for any mother to provide for the family’s needs,” said Khan.

SANZAF then went on to launch a SANZAF/WILLOWTON Budget Beaters Cooking programme with the aim to help and empower families to be able to prepare nutritious meals for a cost of R40.00 or less.

Khan would like the community at large to be more skilled and familiarise themselves with how disabled people lived so as to enhance communities. She also encouraged people to plant and try to make a living off it.

Des Parmeswar, a training coordinator from the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society said the Budget Beaters’ recipe book in braille would ensure that visually impaired people were not left behind even in the kitchen.

“This book launch was absolutely necessary because you would find that there are so many books in print or even cooking videos but not much is there to cater for the Blind.We also struggle to remember everything and so having a value-packed cookbook of our own was of utmost importance,” said Parmeswar.

Sindisiwe Qwabe who is partially blind and also attended the launch on Thursday in Durban, said that this was the first time she would own a cooking book.

“I am very excited about the book because this is the first time that I will own one.I Look forward to preparing a meal from the book. What’s even more exciting is that it will cater to our financial constraints and still provide all the nutrition that we need,” said Qwabe

SANZAF is a public welfare and educational organization that sought to empower the destitute through skill development programmes.The organisation has a chef course which takes up to 36 months to complete as well as a computer course with six weeks for completion.

A print and braille version of the book was available for the public upon request to SANZAC at R50.00 per copy.

Sunday Tribune