“It is amazing!” Claire grinned, staring at the wall where her JAWS certificate is perched at the Oyster & Pearls-Uganda’s office.

Claire Akello is among the blind and visually impaired persons who recently earned her JAWS Certification from Freedom Scientific after completing her 3-month computer training at Oysters & Pearls-Uganda.

This comes as a huge feat for Claire, who was forced to leave University in 2017 before completing her degree, due an accident that exacerbated her visual problem.

Despite having a congenital eye defect, Claire worked hard and was admitted on government sponsorship to study for a bachelor’s degree in Leisure and Hospitality Management at Makerere University Business School in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

“I had always wanted to work in a big hotel,” Claire said.

Although many discouraged her that she would not easily be employed in such an establishment, given her poor vision, Claire was determined.

Tragically, her dream was stifled by an accident one fateful day in 2017.

“As I rested on my bed that day, my roommate accidentally knocked a jug of hot water that was cooling on a table. It poured on my face and entered my eyes.”

Because of this, Claire’s eye defect worsened and she lost her sponsorship, just a year into University.

“I could not read or write in print, so I had to drop out of school in 2017, but mainly because the University management said they did not have provisions for blind and visually impaired learners,” Claire said.

Claire’s family had no idea about Braille or computer screen readers. Being low income earners, paying her tuition at any University was out of reach. To them, Claire’s dreams were now permanently thwarted.

“I was plunged in a pit of depression and hopelessness,” she recollected.

But a few months later, a family friend directed her mother to Uganda National Association for the Blind (UNAB), where she enrolled to learn Braille and computer adaptation with JAWS screen reader.

“Meeting many people with visual disabilities brought me back to life.”

During her training at UNAB she heard about Oysters & Pearls- Uganda, and the opportunities available for her to significantly advance her computer skills.

Since its inception in 2010, Oysters & Pearls-Uganda has trained more than a hundred visually impaired learners in blind inclusive schools across Uganda, and skilled dozens of community members with computer and Braille knowledge.

Claire finished the O&P-UG program, able to demonstrate her proficiency in MS Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access; and she earned her JAWS Certification online from Freedom Scientific.

“It is one of the biggest achievements of my life, being among the few Ugandans to appear on the list of Freedom Scientific JAWS-Certified individuals.”

As the school year is heading into Term Three and the focus for secondary school candidates is achieving stellar results in all subjects, Claire will assist the O&P-UG Team to give a final push for the blind annex students who registered for Computer subject exams.

“I now have something to do as I can help others and wait for a financial breakthrough to return to University for a degree course.”

But, Claire said she now wants to do more than serve or smile at regulars at a huge hotel.

“I want do study Education, with a major in ICT. This, I believe, will give me a chance to inspire and change the lives of others with stories like mine.”