The Croatian Association of Long Cane Friends “Homer” was founded in 1994 as a non-profit and non-governmental organization. The association was registered by the Croatian Justice Department precisely on March 28, 1994, under the number 1835.
Homer’s human resources are comprised of an organizational and an executive/ expert team that complete each other. The organizational team consists of a business secretary, an accountant, as well as technical (technical associate – driver) and help personnel (cleaning staff). The executive team consists of a program coordinator, project manager and other expert personnel such as a skill’s demonstrator, pedagogue – computer educator, outside associates and volunteers. The Homer association serves the entire Croatian territory with the emphasis on the areas of the Primorsko-Goranska County, Ličko-Senjska County and Istarska County. Monetary funds are realized through different national and international resources, donations, sponsorships and memberships. The vast majority of funds are achieved by constantly applying various projects on publicly known donation contests in order to cover the “Skills Laboratory” program and project’s expenses.
The association’s beneficiaries
The association Homer offers its services to a population of about 2% inhabitants (90.000 blind and visually impaired people in Croatia) out of which 45.000 people are blind and visually impaired preschool, school and work able individuals. We concentrate in particular on visually impaired people and we are the only association in Croatia that equally treats both blind and visually impaired people. In addition, the association tries to help, the remaining population of 45.000 blind and visually impaired senior citizens, achieve social rights and thus brighten up their aging process. The beneficiaries participate in the association’s programs and yearly we count up to 20-40 beneficiaries for every project. In addition, Homer’s staff offers long distance assistance to all beneficiaries that contact the association daily by phone, mail or e-mail, every so often, requiring our services. The association collaborates with several non-profit organizations, expert staff in the educational processes, pediatricians, Centers for Social Labor and public institutions.
The association’s members
The Homer association has both regular members and/or supporting members. A regular member of the association is any blind or visually impaired person or any other physical or legal person that is willing to work towards the achievement of the association’s goals. A supporting member of the association is any physical or legal person that does not participate actively in the association’s activities, but financially contributes to the fulfillment of the association’s activities and goals. The Homer association founded the Humane Club in order to ensure a continuous flow of financial means as to comprehensively carry out present and future programs geared towards the social integration of blind and visually impaired people. The Humane Club’s members are the supporting members of the Homer association.
The association’s mission is a continuous social integration of blind and visually impaired children, youth and other visually impaired people by increasing their quality of life during the aging process as well as achieving public awareness towards the problems faced by visually impaired people.
The association’s vision is a conscientious society where visually impaired people of all ages are fully integrated.
The association’s goals:
- To help visually impaired people become conscientious about their own problem and their need for help.
- To fully integrate visually impaired children and youth into society.
- To re-socialize visually impaired people in their aging process.
- To achieve public awareness towards the problems faced by visually impaired people of all degrees of impairment: from minor visual impairment to a complete loss of vision.
The Homer association achieves the set goals by carrying out its activities within the “Skills Laboratory” program.
Within the “Skills Laboratory” program the Homer association is momentarily carrying out two projects: “Tiny Dots For Me” – a project helping blind and visually impaired people achieve computer literacy and “Orientation Points” – filming an educational documentary movie geared towards the public, workshops and seminars with a core message saying that a blind and visually impaired person can demonstrate their knowledge and ability as much as the openhandedness of visually healthy people allows them to.
Three projects are in the development phase: the second phase of the “Hip Hop” project – inclusion of blind and visually impaired children into regular educational systems, “Do It Yourself” – a project enabling blind and visually impaired children practice their sensory and motor skills imperative for fulfilling different daily activities in their real social environment and “Smart Hands” – a project educating blind and visually impaired people create and manufacture products on the market.
Within the entire “Skills Laboratory” program, the association is offering consulting services for visually impaired children and their parents, it is also taking care of visually impaired people in their aging process as well as creating the Humane Club and working on establishing a professional Homer’s Library for all its users. |
