The
seven regions of ICEVI are active as usual. As per the strategic plan,
ICEVI’s focus should be more on the regions, and is being achieved
by ICEVI in the last one year. The activities of the Regions carried out
in the last six months are summarized as follows.
Following the successful Southern
Africa subregional committee meeting held in Stellenbosch,
South Africa during March 2003, the Africa Region started developing national
networks for ICEVI in other sub-regions. The West Africa meeting held
in Accara, Ghana brought together those involved in ICEVI and was also
used as a platform to demonstrate collaboration with international nongovernmental
development organizations. Besides the implementation of projects under
Lee Foundation grant, the region is also exploring the possibility of
linking other leadingfunding agencies with ICEVI’s effort. TheRegional
Chairpersons and sub-regional chairs are in touch with the Hiltons Perkins
Program, Bartimeus, Force Foundation, etc., to co-fund projects proposed
by ICEVI. CBM and SSI are already working in partnership with ICEVI and
this collaboration will go a long way in expanding educational opportunities
for children with visual impairment in the Africa region. The Secretary
General and the Regional Chairperson of Africa region met in Nairobi,
Kenya in December 2003 and worked out strategies for the region for the
next two years. The Africa region proposes to focus its attention mostly
on collaboration and in persuading Governments to include services for
persons with visual impairment under the overall system of education.
Considering the vastnessof the region including 52 countries, the Region
is proposing to take few countries at a time and do more intensive work
and gradually spread to other regions, while creating awareness in the
entire region through publications, brochures, etc.
The East Asia Region
conducted its regional committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in
August 2003. Though the progress of the region was delayed to some extent
due to the outbreak of SARS during the early part of 2003, the region
has swung back into action in the later half of 2003. The East Asia region
has successfully revised its entire database with the help of country
representatives of the region. Considering the need for the affluent countries
to assist less developed countries within the region, a Task Force consisting
of representatives from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan will
be formed to find out the status of educational services available in
other member countries in the region, especially Myanmar, East Timor Leste,
Laos and Cambodia. In addition to the projects supported by the Lee Foundation,
China has undertaken a project in collaboration with the Ministry of Education
to publish 7 books in the area of education of visually impaired children.
The East Asia Regional Conference will be held in Bangkok from November
29 to December 1, 2004 and the ICEVI Thailand Network will be the host
organization. The region has also come out with a proposal that the country
representatives, using the ICEVI national networks, conduct surveys to
identify persons with visual impairment who require educational services.
With the venue of the 12th world conference of ICEVI being Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, the East Asia region is drawing international attention.
The Europe Region
has its own website and it is encouraging educators, parents, other professionals
and organizations for the blind to become subscribing members of ICEVI.
ICEVI was represented at the International congress for staff working
at institutions or in the field for visually impaired people in Dortmund
University, Germany, which was attended by nearly 900 people from 17 European
countries. During the congress, a meeting was held to discuss the Training
Seminar of the region to be held in 2004. The second meeting of the Program
Committee of the European region conference to be held in 2005 was also
conducted at the time of the international conference. The region has
brought out its Newsletter and the application for subscription recently.
The Regional Chairperson met with Mr. Rafael Gonzales recently, who is
responsible for international activities of ONCE and appraised the work
of the Europe region in Spanish speaking countries.
The Latin America
region has brought out the Spanish version of the Strategic Plan. Besides,
the ICEVI website in Spanish is almost ready. The Latin America region
is operating through five sub regions and three Special Groups on ‘Early
Intervention’, ‘Low Vision’ and ‘Education of
persons with Multidisabilities’. Most of the projects supported
by the Lee Foundation are as per schedule. CBM is working throughout all
the Latin America region and ICEVI activities are co-funded in most of
the cases. In addition to the 27 workshops, assessment of institutions
and courses developed in the region, the major ‘Sub-regional Congress
on Early Intervention’ jointly organised with the support of CBM,
was held in October 2003 in Bolivia. More than 300 teachers, professionals,
parents and members of the community participated. The Principal Officers
meeting of ICEVI is likely to be held in Costa Rica in November 2004 jointly
with ‘ICEVI sub-regional Conference’, where some officers
will submit papers.
The officers of the North
America and Caribbean region held teleconferences in May and again
in October 2003 to discuss ICEVI activities in the region. Dr. Kathleen
Mary Huebner has become the co-chair of the region. The region is collaborating
with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Pennsylvania College
of Optometry, Caribbean Council for the Blind, Richard Feinbloom Designs
for Vision, Inc., etc., for organizing training programmes, expansion
of services, etc. Dr. Susan LaVenture, who is one of the key coordinators
of Parents’ Movement in ICEVI, who is also the Executive Director
of United States based National Association for Parents of Visually Impaired
Children (NAPVI) assisted parents in Canada in establishing their own
association which will provide a collective voice to the parents of visually
impaired children. At present, students from Belarus, Egypt, Estonia and
Palestine are undergoing training at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry.
ICEVI members actively took part in the “Getting in Touch with Literacy”
conference held in Vancouver, BC, Canada from 4 to 6 December 2003. The
region will also be taking active part in the AERBVI International Conference
to be held in Orlando, Florida in July 2004. The region is also looking
forward to the China – U.S. Conference on educating students with
special needs to be held in Beijing, China from June 14 to 17, 2004. In
short, the vast region is expanding its activities throughout the member
countries.
The Pacific region
is actively collaborating with the South Pacific Educators of the Visually
Impaired (SPEVI). The Newsline of SPEVI will be posted on the Pacific
page of ICEVI website. ICEVI will make a presentation about its activities
in the forthcoming conference of the SPEVI in 2005.
The West Asia region
conducted its regional committee meeting in Katmandu, Nepal from 30 September
to 1 October 2003. The regional committee suggested that the Lee Foundation
projects of the region should be implemented in most of countries of the
region. It also decided to influence the local governments to include
education of visually impaired children under the overall education for
all network. The Regional Chairperson took part in the national consultation
to discuss the Biwako Millennium Framework organized by the Government
of India in October 2003. The region is proposing to hold its regional
conference in early 2005 in Katmandu, Nepal. Most of the countries of
the former Middle East region are now members of the West Asia region.
The Regional Chairperson is in touch with these countries to try to create
an ICEVI network.
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