The Spanish organization ONCE (Organización Nacional de Españoles Ciegos) and its Foundation will spend nearly 134,000 euros to a project of education and rehabilitation of persons with a complete or partial visual impairments in Haiti. Most of its funding comes from contributions collected after the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, from the employees of the ONCE and donations received by the Foundation.

According to the project defined by the ONCE, the money will go specifically to a development plan which will be implemented by the Haitian Society for the Blind (Société Haïtienne d'Aide aux Aveugles SHAA), in collaboration with government organizations and NGOs to assist especially children and youth.

Although the SHAA has 3,000 beneficiaries, stakeholders believe to nearly 15,000 the number of Haitians affected by sight problems. This program that will be completed in three years, includes the education, the rehabilitation and the leisures for blind Haitians to enable them to develop their full potential and become active members of the society.

This project aims, among other things, that the children with visual impairments, recovers in the first time, the same level of education that existed before the earthquake of January 2010 (4%). After three years of this program, this should reach 6-8%.

Another important point of the rehabilitation program is the commitment to promote special events adapted to the lifestyle of the blind.

The ONCE Foundation for Latin America (FOAL) had already sent a donation in nature valued at 60,000 euros, including humanitarian aid materials designed for blind people (permanent or not) who were in a state of utter helplessness after the earthquake.

Learn more about The ONCE Foundation:
The Spanish ONCE Foundation was established in February 1988 for being an instrument of cooperation and solidarity to the blind Spanish and other groups of people with this disability. The main objective of the Foundation is to implement programs of professional integration and accessibility through the development of environments, of products and services globally accessible.

HL/ HaitiLibre