Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - The National Organization for blind people (ONCE), thanks to a program of international cooperation, has promoted various educational projects of which in the last 15 years more than 250,000 children in areas such as Latin America, the Balkans, India, or the Sahara have benefited from. The primary objective of the Spanish NGO is to improve the quality of life of the blind and visually impaired people. In the last 4 years the Association in Latin America has educated 121,684 boys and girls with this condition and has provided training courses to employ more than 50,000 people who are blind. It has managed to create 900 jobs and 100 micro-enterprises financed by blind people. Europe's contribution was allocated to the areas of the Balkans, where centers have been set up for the production of educational materials in Braille and professionals have been trained to take care of blind people. In the African continent most of the campaigns of the Association are concentrated, such as that which provides for the education of blind children in the refugee camps of Tindouf in Algeria. In Morocco, together with Instituto Cervantes in Tetuán, teaching materials for the learning of the Spanish language, textbooks in Braille, literacy materials and access to typhlo-technology, recent initiative of illustrated tactile books have been offered. Only recently ONCE carries out programs for training and rehabilitation in Equatorial Guinea. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 17/07/2013)
