The 9th Helen Keller World Conference, the first to be held in Africa is due to take place in Uganda from October 22nd to 27th 2009 at Speak Resort Munyonyo, Kampala.
According to the Uganda minister of state for the elderly Sulaiman Madada on Saturday, Helen Keller World Conference is an international event held after every five years. It was last held in Finland in 2004.
After the one in Uganda this year, the subsequent Helen Keller conference will take place in Japan in 2014.
The conference is used as a platform for discussing issues concerning the deaf and the blind as a critical agenda in development and human rights.
Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American book author, activist, university lecturer and a celebrated poet. She was the first blind and deaf person to graduate from a college. Madada says the conference is held to commemorate the good work Keller did for Persons with Disabilities.
The theme of the conference is “convention of the rights of persons with disabilities, changing the lives of the deaf and blind.”
Source African Press Agency
