Launched in 1995, BayGen represents a marriage of appropriate technology, social responsibility, private enterprise and economic empowerment. That BayGen is partially owned by the Disability Employment Concerns Trust, an economic empowerment investment consortium of seven major South African disability NGO's means that a significant portion of profits earned will become a sustainable long-term source of funding support of the broad range of welfare and development projects and programmes operated by those NGO's. This will have the effect of lessening the dependence of these organisations on Government and donor financing. The Disability Employment Concerns model of economic empowerment goes further. The right to literacy must be considered one of the most unquestionable rights of all people.
Literacy is crucial to all aspects of life, public and private.
We recognize that literacy is necessary to reach personal goals, to adapt to a changing environment and to achieve a meaningful existence. Literacy among blind people is recognized as a basic human need that opens the door to a better quality of life. According to the World Health Organization there are approximately 148 million people world-wide with serious visual impairment, of these around 38 million are totally blind. This then is the challenge facing those of us committed to empowering blind people to reach out and grasp their full potential. The quality of life of many thousands of blind south Africans is affected because they cannot read or write in Braille.