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About
Us 
EBU: General
presentation
The
European Blind Union is a non-governmental, non profit-making European
organization founded in 1984. One of the six regional bodies of the
World
Blind Union,
it is the only organization representing the interests of blind and partially-sighted
people in Europe.
EBU aims to protect and promote the interests of all blind and partially-sighted
people in Europe. Its objects and powers are set out in Article II of
its
Constitution.
EBU currently has
44 member countries,
each represented by a national delegation. Its work is directed by an
Executive Board
of 11 elected members who are accountable to a General Assembly held every
four years.
The detailed work of EBU is carried out by
Standing Commissions
and Working Groups, whose areas of activity reflect the major interests
of EBU.
The Central Office of EBU is based in Paris. It is responsible for communication
within EBU and for information to the general public : it produces
a quarterly Newsletter in English, French, German and Spanish. The English
version is also available in accessible formats (tape and braille). For
more information, please contact: Mokrane Boussaid, Director EBU Office
58 avenue Bosquet, 75007 Paris, Tel : +33 1 47 05 38 20
Fax:
+33 1 47 05 38 21 E-mail :
ebu_uea@compuserve.com
EBU’office
runs a number of projets financed (or cofinanced) by the European Commission,
such us this one (“Blind Children for Peace”), the EBU’s European Year
project (www.ebuindigo.org), the
Daphne project (www.ebudaphne.org),
and some PHARE and TACIS projects. For more information about EBU/EU projects,
please contact: Dr Yvonne Toros, EBU Projects Officer, same address, Tel:
+ 33 1 47 05 38 53, Fax: +33 47 05 38 21, e-mail: ytorosebu@compuserve.com
Palestinian part
“The National Society for the Visually Handicapped” NSVH
P. O. Box 19924
Jerusalem
Telefax: +970.2.2766151
Mobile: +972.546.322838
E-mail: nsvh@p-ol.com
Website: www.nsfvh.org
The National Society for the Visually Handicapped is a Palestinian non-governmental
organization, established in Jerusalem in 1962. The Society is a member
of the Union of Charitable Societies based in Jerusalem. The Society's
main goal is to promote and enhance cultural, educational and social standards
for the blind and visually impaired.
Al-Shurooq school, located in Beit Jala, is the educational facility of
the society; it was established in 1981, in order to provide the blind
and the visually impaired with appropriate education and equal opportunity.
The programs offered at Al-Shurooq School enable blind child, after acquiring
adequate training and skills, to cope efficiently with their natural home
environment and function independently in regular classroom settings.
The school focuses on Braille training, both in Arabic and English languages,
using the regular Palestinian curricula, in addition to daily living skills,
mobility, computers and other development programs such as music, swimming
lessons and field trips.
The National Society for the Visually Handicapped has designed a five-tiered
complementary program to address the basic problem of integration facing
the blind and visually impaired in Palestine. These programs are:
1. The Preparation For Integration Program:
This program is specifically designed to prepare blind and visually impaired
children to integrate into their natural home environment and into mainstream
schools. It enables the children, after acquiring adequate training and
daily living skills, to cope efficiently with their natural environment
and function independently in regular classroom settings.
Through integration, blind and visually impaired children can stay at
home with their families and attend local regular schools alongside their
sighted peers.
The preparation program focuses on teaching blind children mobility and
daily living skills, such as eating, dressing, personal hygiene and other
such skills that can either be performed independently or with assistance,
without the total support of their families.
The program also focuses on teaching the Palestinian curricula using the
Braille system, computers and music.
Due to the limited space at Al-Shurooq, only a modest number of 25 children
can attend the school at any one time. These children are mainly blind
girls between the ages of 3-14.
The children stay in the program for a period of 1- 4 years depending
on their ability to integrate.
Since the large majority of the children come from poverty-stricken areas
such as remote isolated villages and refugee camps, the school provides
full accommodation.
2. The Integration, Support And Follow-Up Program:
After spending a period of 1- 4 years at Al-Shurooq's preparatory program,
and based on individual assessments done by the school specialists, the
child is integrated into his/her own home environment to live with his/her
family and integrated into the local mainstream school.
Initially, through weekly visits and to ensure proper integration, a specialized
social worker continues to provide support to the children, their families
and new teachers.
The social worker also provides them with the essential aids, tools and
appliances needed, such as Braille typewriters, Braille paper, Braille
textbooks, magnifiers, canes and tape recorders. Once the child is properly
settled, visits are carried out monthly.
3. Summer School Camp:
A one-month summer school program is held every year to the newly integrated
and to the children at the preparation for integration program. This program
aims to enhance their abilities and skills in areas of apparent weaknesses.
On an individual basis, children follow an intensive program depending
on his or her essential needs.
Summer school also provides extra-curricular activities, such as handicrafts,
field trips and swimming lessons. This enables the children to share experiences,
knowledge, develop hobbies and interests and mostly to break up the monotony
of summer days.
4. Braille Book Production Unit:
A Braille book production unit became operable at the school in 1996.
Books were initially produced manually, but in the last few years and
due to computerization, there has been a fundamental improvement in the
Society's book production.
Books go out on loan for a nominal yearly charge, since the purchase of
Braille books is highly expensive.
5. Braille Book Library:
Initially in 1962, the main objective of the Society was to produce books
in Arabic and English Braille; thereby establishing the first library
of Arabic Braille books in the entire Middle East.
As a result of the 1967 war, offering services to other Arab countries
became impossible. However, the unit for Braille book production and library
gradually expanded. In 1996, the Society opened an additional branch of
the library in Beit Jala, the first being in Jerusalem, to facilitate
access to blind people living in the southern districts of the West Bank.
The library on average serves more than six hundred (600) blind and visually
impaired children and adults. However due the current Israeli restriction
on movement of the Palestinians, including the disabled, the number of
people benefiting from the library services dropped in the past two years
to two hundred (200).
Mercantile Bank
Salah Iddeen Street
Branch 638
Swift Code Bardilita
Account number 426776
East Jerusalem
Israeli part
Guila Seidel, President
of "Ofek Liyladenu" and head of the Israeli group, thanking
our hosts
“OFEK LIYLADENU”
Israel National Association of Parents of Visually Impaired Children
“Ofek Liyladenu” - Our Children’s Horizon, is a newly established (1997)
non profit association of parents of visually impaired and blind children
in Israel. There are approximately 2000 visually impaired and blind children,
and more than 70% are integrated in the mainstream educational system.
However, in order to turn them into competent young adults, a lot needs
to be done by the parents.
The main goals of our association is to support parents of visually impaired
and blind children by the following actions:
1. To distribute a newsletter with updated relevant information (from
national and international sources) to help them bring up and educate
their children.
2. To organize guided support groups in the different regional centers,
to discuss common issues in raising up blind and visually impaired children.
3. To initiate seminars , regional and annual conferences dealing with
issues related to the special skills visually impaired children need to
be trained in.
4. To set up afternoon and summer activities for the children who are
integrated in regular schools, in order to strengthen them in the fields
that cannot be dealt with the needed attention during the school hours.
5. To be an influential body, which represents our children’s special
needs among the various ministries in charge of our children.
6. To promote better understanding of our visually impaired children and
tolerance within the general public.
7. To distribute scholarships for the children’s special needs (special
devices and computers) and to reward children or persons in the community
for outstanding dedication to our children.
The board of directors is elected by the parents members of the association,
and includes representatives of the different regions, children age groups,
various degrees of visual impairment (visually impaired, blind, multi-handicapped)
and ethnic groups (Jews, Arabs, Bedouins). All the members are parents
who work voluntarily.
The activities of our association are not sponsored by any governmental
entity. All funds are raised as membership fees or by individuals who
care for the cause.
P.O.Box 925, Jerusalem 91008, Israel
Tel: +972 2 6599553 Fax: +972 276522614
ofek@ofek-liyladenu.org.il
webmaster@ebupeace.org |
