The empowered visually impaired person is no different than anyone else – she or he wants to be a contributing and productive member of their community.  The Kenya Union of the Blind provides adults with the tools and resources to become self-reliant and promotes social participation among our members.

To achieve this, the Kenya Union of the Blind:

1. Trains visually impaired adults to be self-reliant and participate in community activities by providing training in:
• Self-reliance skills and use of assistive devices, such as white canes.
• Computer and Braille literacy skills.
• Micro-enterprise and economic engagement skills, including the provision of educational material and support in applications.
2. Advocates for policies that improve social services available to visually impaired persons.  This includes:
• Lobbying national and community-based service providers for inclusive policies.
• Influencing local authorities to revise their by-laws to include issues facing persons with visual impairment.
• Lobbying national and community level social development decision-making organizations for representation by visually impaired persons on their decision-making bodies.
3. Works with community based services and programs to ensure persons with visual impairment are included in their services and policies.  This includes:
• Training and providing material to support Adult Education Units for visually impaired learners
• Developing partnerships with social service providers for children whose parents are visually impaired
• Advocate for policy frameworks that enhance access to social services by persons with visual impairment. 
4. Builds the capacity of regional KUB branches to educate, empower and represent members at the constituency level.  This includes:
• Training and supporting regional branches on community sensitization, negotiations, civic education and HIV/AIDS.
• Training our branch leaders on how to: effectively lobby at the community level; how to develop and provide effective services for members in their districts; good governance and leadership skills 

For Case Studies about Membership Empowerment, select this link