The second international seminar under the V.I.V.A. Project, under the Erasmus+ Program was held in Sofia during the week 18-22 November 2019. The project aims at developing entrepreneurship, knowledge and behavior of young visually impaired people and it includes partner organizations from Bulgaria, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Romania and Belgium. Many representatives of the target group took part in the seminar and the had the opportunity to build and improve their confidence and motivation for career enhancing through a lot of interactive workshops, as well as to identify initiative opportunities in the field of social entrepreneurship, accompanied by practical skills.

 

 

On December 4th 2019 the National Rehabilitation Center for the Blind - Plovdiv held the social experiment “A cup of coffee in the darkness” for the second time at  the art-gallery in the archeological underpass in the center of the city. The gallery was established under the "Expanding the Center for Mutual Assistance, Integration and Support” Project. This time, there was again a great interest by the visitors. The guests of the gallery had the opportunity to put on black eyeglasses, which simulate total blindness and they had a chance to experience for a while  the world of the visually impaired. After that, accompanied by an assistant, they had a cup of coffee and some sweets, while discussing the problems of the visually impaired people and the challenges in their every-day life. The participants expressed their feeling and impressions in a notebook and were surprised how perceptions change when the sense of sight is missing.

The NRCB celebrated the International day of the white cane (15th October) by conducting a Day of the open doors. The Center was visited by the Minister of labor and social affairs Bisser Petkov, the Executive director of “Social assistance” Agency Rumyana Petkova, the GERB candidate for mayor of Plovdiv Zdravko Dimitrov, the mayor of “Eastern” District Nikolay Chunchukov, the chairman of the Union of the Blind Vassil Dolapchiev, journalists from different national and local medias.

The visitors were introduced to the history, structure, activity and offered services by the NRCB and took a tour round the cabinets, studies, they met different clients and students of the Center. They visited and observed classes in Cooking, Visual rehabilitation, Everyday skills, Orientation and mobility, Art-therapy, vocational training in Massage, sports activities, diagnosis of children’s eyesight with a modern apparatus, Braille literacy and printing. They met visually impaired artists, painters, sportsmen, children and adults, they listened to their problems and committed with support and assistance to their and the Center’s cause.

On 30.9. and 1.10.2019 in Kendros Hotel, Plovdiv, a two-day seminar was held with resource associates to the NRCB, under the subject “Basic rehabilitation of visually impaired people” within the “Expanding the activity of VIP Center to the NRCB – Plovdiv Project. More than 30 participants from the whole country took part in it – resource associates to the NRCB. Among the presented topics were the NRCB services of Orientation and mobility, Everyday skills, Braille, Information technologies, Visual rehabilitation, Vocational training and Training in proactive behavior at the labor market. The attendants listened attentively to the presented subjects and took an active part in the follow-up discussion with the Center’s experts.

Three month Report on the Financial Performance of the NRCB-Plovdiv and three month report on the activities performed for the period 01.7.2019-30.9.2019

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