“Orientation Points” practical education of the society, experts and students on blindness and visual impairment

Public awareness campaigns have been carried out since the association’s foundation in 1994 through various cultural and art manifestations and events while continually and purposely the program has been carried out since 2003 starting with the manifestation named “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” and later on through projects “Let’s Clear Things Up”, renamed “Let’s Open Our Eyes” and finally “Orientation Points”. 
The core problem of institutionalizing visually impaired children is separating them from their family and thus depriving them from the basic need for love, caring, freedom, entertainment and similar. In order to alter this order of events we believe that the public’s education and awareness about the problem is crucial. A vital part in attaining the above mentioned are appropriate classes and workrooms that would provide other then the theoretical knowledge the practical and exact knowledge of much use to parents, experts and the community at large. In fact, Croatia holds a “dark” number of approximately 90.000 visually impaired people, out of which 45.000 are senior citizens while the remaining 45.000 are preschool, school aged and work-able individuals. This “dark” number is drawn according to world statistical records while it’s still unavailable and remains unrecorded in Croatian statistical records. Therefore, this large number of potential users, with considerable visual impairment is unaware of the following:     

• necessity toward prevention,
• early discovery and intervention of visual impairment,
• early discovery and intervention of the remaining percentage of functional vision,
• finding the right treatments and extending their own employment period.

 

Long-term goals: A constant inclusion of the “dark” number of blind and visually impaired people in the social environment on the local, national and international level.

Short-term goal: A stronger awareness campaign about the actual problems faced by visually impaired people on a national level and finding a part of the “dark number” of highly visually impaired people with the remaining functional vision of 40 %.

Projected activities for the year 2005/2006 are:

• Filming and screening the educational documentary movie “Orientation Points” and producing the CD named “ Embraced with Love” whose goal is to encourage the public to rightly help preschool visually impaired children and their families,
• Educating kindergarten pedagogues and educational staff in elementary schools, high schools and colleges as well as similar national and international partner associations and business people,
• Teaching students ways to help visually impaired people.

 

Expected results:

• Through education and a public awareness on blindness and visual impairment we expect the society to remove fear and negative judgments and increase the conscience and awareness towards blind and visually impaired people. In addition, we anticipate a common understanding that a blind and/or visually impaired citizen has equal rights and obligations as any other citizen. Finally, our expected result is an overall more knowledgeable and understanding public about detecting early signs pointing to visual impairment and ways to prevent certain maladies.     

 

• Educated experts. Therefore, we’d expect that blind and visually impaired children remain in their local communities since their parents would have received the necessary support in the educational and health institutions. Teachers would be acquainted with the ways to treat and communicate with blind and visually impaired children as well as the ways to redesign the educational program and playrooms to support the need of visually impaired children in order to readily integrate them among visually healthy children. Finding out the “dark number” of blind and visually impaired children in order to direct parents to appropriate institutions and non-governmental sectors and thus promptly support visually impaired children and intervene early with their social integration. 

• Educated students. Thus we expect students to be freed from negative judgments towards people with impairments, emphasizing on blind and visually impaired people. Moreover we expect students with an increased sense of healthy empathy and tolerance towards social differences.