At the age of seven, Marcelline Gato had an accident that resulted in her losing sight – to her, that was a life-changing situation.

After attending Gatagara Centre, a center that caters to children with disabilities, Gato could go to school. Now a mother, she graduated from the University of Rwanda in 2021.

But life could have been different had she not had a white cane – a walking stick for visually impaired people. With the white cane, Gato affirms, her life has become easier and she needs little facilitation to do everyday activities.

"To me, the white cane is my life. When I have it, I can walk and do all the home chores. I could go to school as well. With the stick, I can do anything except things that require sight,” she says.

While most people without sight need someone to aid them in everything, those who use a white cane call it a tool of independence.

But Gato is one of the few people with visual impairment who have been to own a white cane. According to Rwanda Union of the Blind (RUB), tens of thousands of visually impaired people remain disadvantaged.

The RUB has for years appealed to the government to include the walking sticks among services covered by health insurance.

If white canes were covered by community-based health insurance, the RUB says, they would be more affordable.

The call is being made as RUB marks the white cane celebration week, which runs until Wednesday, November 9.

A walking stick costs average Rwf20,000 and with insurance cover it could go down to around Rwf2,000

In Rwanda, an estimated 57,000 people have visual impairment, but less than 10 percent of them use walking sticks.

RUB has donated about 2,000 white canes. An unknown number of other sticks have been donated by different organisations, while a smaller number of visually impaired people bought them.

On average, one white cane cost about Rwf20,000, a price the RUB says is unaffordable to most people with visual impairment.

"For us, the white cane should be covered by health insurance like any other services,” said Donatille Kanimba, RUB’s executive director. "If they were insurance and the person who needs to pay 10 per cent of the price, that would make a very big difference.”

With the shortage of white canes in the country, Kanimba said that including them among insured services would lead to increased supply.

"There’s demand for white canes, not just because most people don’t have them, but also because they can be damaged or get old and so people need to get new ones,” she said.

Efforts to get locally made smart white canes remain limited, in part due to the fact that even the modest ones remain unaffordable to the thousands in need.

White canes should be integrated among medical services, Kanimba says, adding that their availability would also be coupled with awareness about them and how they are used.