As a part
of the Strategic Plan of ICEVI to develop " BEST PRACTICES",
ICEVI has initiICEVI was honoured to be invited to make the main presentation
on the theme of “Education and Rehabilitation” at the “Sight
First Symposium” on “21st Century Challenges in Sight, Vision
Rehabilitation and Vision Research”. The symposium was held by the
Lions Clubs International Foundation on 27-28 March 2004 in Seoul, Republic
of Korea. At the outset, Dr. Tae-Sup Lee, International President, Lions
Clubs International welcomed the international Directors and the resource
persons of the symposium and highlighted the need for revisiting the objectives
of the SightFirst program to include comprehensive services including
that of education and rehabilitation. By citing the statistics that only
one in ten children has any access educational services, he suggested
that Helen Keller would be distressed to see how few blind children are
receiving education. He recalled the invaluable contributions made by
Lions to the field of visual impairment such as support for the introduction
of white cane, guide dogs training, prevention of blindness, etc. In his
address, he also recognized the attendance of researchers, educators,
etc., working for persons with visual impairment at the meeting. Immediate
Past President Kay Fukushima spoke of the importance of this meeting in
not only looking at what has been achieved by the SightFirst program but
more importantly at what new concerns should be addressed by a second
phase of the program. Following his remarks, he introduced the moderator
of the symposium Dr. Para Rajasegaram from the World Health Organisation.
Dr. Para Rajasegaram recalled the statement made by Helen Keller in 1925
who stated that no blind child should remain untaught and the Lions should
become the Knights of the Blind. He stated that the Lions Seminar held
in Singapore in 1988 insisted on the involvement of Lions at the grass
root level in the strengthening of the SightFirst program. He described
the global and regional structures that were established for implementing
the program. Referring to the results of the program evaluation, he suggested
that they indicated that the future objectives of SightFirst needed to
be revised. He emphasised the need for collaboration in preventing childhood
blindness, and for raising public awareness of the need to promote the
treatment of visual impairment and for research into visual loss and rehabilitation.
Resource persons drawn from various parts of the world deliberated on
the challenges of visual impairment including: unmet needs such as those
related to River Blindness (Onchocerciasis), Refractive Error, and Emerging
issues such as Threats: Childhood Blindness and Diabetic Retinopathy,
Human Resource Development, the role of Low Vision services in vision
rehabilitation, Low Vision assistive technologies, the future potential
of Artificial Vision systems, Rehabilitation Services for the Visually
Disabled, Technology for persons with visual impairment and Vision Research.
In the main plenary session on “Rehabilitation
Services for the Visually Disabled: Empowerment, Education, Enrichment
and Employment”, Larry Campbell, President and M.N.G. Mani,
Secretary General of ICEVI made a presentation on Education For All: The
Unrealized Dream and requested the involvement of Lions Clubs in expanding
educational and rehabilitation services for persons with visual impairment.
They argued that Lions Clubs can realize the dream of Helen Keller by
embracing those blind persons
who cannot benefit from preventive or curative measures and provide them
with early intervention care, education, and rehabilitation services.
They outlined the direction to be taken for achieving the goals of education
for all visually impaired children and suggested that LCIF and ICEVI should
collaborate on two initiatives to begin with, namely, 1) Early Childhood
Intervention, and 2) Developing Models for Achieving Education For All.
The presentation stressed that the involvement of LCIF in Education would
not involve fund raising for expensive infrastructure, buildings or technology
but would be about facilitating training and capacity building in parents
and teachers, and promoting networking and synergy to improve services
for individuals with visual impairment. The full paper presented at the
symposium is posted on the website of ICEVI www.icevi.org
The symposium ended with a vote of thanks to Dr. Lee and the local Korean
Lions Club for their excellent hospitality.
