His concern for the disabled persons has its origin from his personal interaction with one of his cousins with whom they lived together from birth till he, Tony finished from Oludaye Grammar School, Oba-Akoko in Ondo State and left for Lagos in 1982 to further his education. This his cousin had and still has problem with his legs and one of his eyes. His personal contact with such predicament and burden has made him to know how helpless this class of people can be sometime.
When he was at the University of Lagos, he also interacted with some students who were blind. He (Prince Ademuyiwa) even tried to learn how to use the brailing machine to type and also how to read the brails, all with the intent of being equipped to support such people.
Tony Ademuyiwa
He later met Miss Dupe Omogbayi, a physically challenged lady (she is crippled) with whom this center is being co-founded. He was impressed by this lady's attitude to life and was challenged to have an enlightened programmes that can preach “Ability in Disability” to others in this category. He then, decided to start the programme with a computer and music training, being his areas of proficiency. He also organises and holds motivational talks and empowerment seminars.
Prince Ademuyiwa finished from the University of Lagos in 1990 with a B.Sc. (Ed.) Mathematics and worked in a computer firm after his NYSC Programme. He then established a computer training outfit in February 1993 and started operations in June 1994. He has a certificate in theory of music of the Royal Schools of Music, London. He is currently a postgraduate student of Music at the University of Lagos. He is also an alumni of Baptist Academy, Lagos where he had his Higher School Certificate.
He started this humanitarian programme since 1994 and about 80% of those he trained in computer between 1994 and 2004 ran the training free. He has also trained hundreds of people in music free of cost.
To make his effort more productive and effective, he got the approval and registration certificate from CAC in October 2005. He then expanded the scope of his computer training to cater for the Special-need and less Privileged persons and has trained over two hundred people in computer operations free of cost to date. In 2008 alone, he enrolled more than a hundred people for computer training
Tony Ademuyiwa's Contact info: Phone: +234-8023073226, 8035497819 E-mail:tony@disabledcentre.org
THE CO-FOUNDER
Dupe Omogbayi
She attended disabled primary school called Otun Ireti Primary school founded by a British lady called Miss Mytle Hall. She was encouraged to strive to become successful in life and to forget her disability by Miss Hall who always said to them “your disability is a secondary issue and the primary issues is to be where you want to be and you are the architect of your own fortune”.
When she was at Mount Carmel Secondary School, she faced a lot of problems from the able bodied persons. Some people find it very difficult to associate with her because she was the only one in that school who was a special-
need person. She had to struggle with transportation. Upon concluding her secondary education, she proceeded to the University of Lagos, where she had her first degree in Business Administration. Even at UNILAG, movement to classes was also very difficult for her as some of her classrooms were upstairs. She is currently studying for her master degree in Management at the University of Lagos
When she got to Lagos, she was disappointed at some special-need persons who resulted to begging as their job. On a second thought, she felt their outlook to life may actually be as a result of lack of opportunity. Since then, she has been looking for a way to contribute positively to the life of these special-need persons. She was fulfilled when she met Tony Ademuyiwa with whom she shares common interest.
(c) Copyright Centre for the Empowerment of the Disabled ...............................................................................................Designed by Ideal Web Solutions
