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beginning of 2004, the Africa Region worked hard
to help make the Africa Forum (see page 13) a success and to use it as
a launching pad for the many ICEVI-related activities in the region. The
organizers of the Africa Forum generously provided ICEVI opportunities
to address delegates in various sessions and the results were rewarding.
The “Friends of ICEVI” meeting held during the Africa Forum
was attended by members from many parts of Africa and they pledged to
promote the objectives of ICEVI in their own countries. One of the most
significant achievements is that a “quadrennium plan” for
the region has been drawn up and in relation to the plan, Sight Savers
International and the CBM International have come together to explore
the possibility of supporting co-funded projects. The ICEVI Africa Regional
Committee meeting took place after the Africa Forum on 28 to 29 May 2004.
The Committee identified teacher preparation, mathematics, and low vision
as the three priority areas for the region in the years to come and it
believes that the quality of educational services for children with visual
impairment in Africa will improve substantially in the future.
Following the meeting of the Executive Committee
of ICEVI held in Kuala Lumpur in February 2004, the East
Asia Region announced that it planned to organize a regional conference
in Jomtien, Thailand, where the “Educational For All” movement
started in 1990. (The EFA initiative has encouraged many countries to
explore the possibility of updating the skills of teachers of children
with visual impairment through the GLOBE-All distance education courses
of the Hadley School for the Blind, which has entered into a Memorandum
of Understanding with ICEVI). A meeting was held in Bangkok from 16 to
17 June 2004 to plan the regional conference which will be facilitated
by the ICEVI Thailand Network. A quadrennium plan for ICEVI activities
in Vietnam has been finalized and the East Asia region has facilitated
networking between voluntary and government organizations in Indonesia
to encourage joint initiatives in the provision of services to persons
with visual impairment.
The European Region
held its regional committee meeting in Barcelona in May 2004. Besides
reviewing sub-regional activities, it also discussed issues of regional
fundraising and the development of a regional membership structure. It
continues to publish its regular newsletter which serves as one of the
main vehicles for promoting ICEVI in Europe. Two major events - a Teacher
Training Seminar from 23 to 28 September 2004 in Budapest, and a Balkan
Conference in October 2004 in Belgrade will be the highlights of the regional
activities in 2004. The 5th European Conference will be held from 14 to
18 August 2005 in Chemnitz, Germany. For further details of these events
and of other initiatives in the European region visit the ICEVI European
website www.icevi-europe.org.
The North America Region
is expecting the largest number of participants ever at the Conference
of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation (AER) of the Blind
and Visually Impired which is being held from July 13 to 18 in Orlando,
Florida. The conference theme is “Where Dreams Come True”.
Drs. Susan Spungin of the American Foundation for the Blind, Michael Bina
of Hadley School for the Blind, and Kathleen Huebner of the Pennsylvania
College of Optometry will present a joint poster session on ICEVI. Kathleen
Huebner, Regional Co-Chair, will receive the Mary K. Bauman Award for
outstanding contributions in education. Dr. Diane P. Wormsley will receive
two awards from two separate divisions of AER: the Itinerant Division
and the Curriculum Division for the book ‘Braille Literacy: A Functional
Approach’ published by the American Foundation for the Blind. ICEVI
extends its congratulations to Kathy and Diane on these deserved honours.
Teleconference calls for regional representatives of the region continue
on a regular basis.
The Latin America Region
continues to conduct its regular sub-regional committee meetings and programmes
with the support of the Lee Charitable Foundation. Lee activities in Uruguay,
Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina have so far
benefited more than 500 teachers and other personnel.
The ICEVI Pacific Region
is helping the South Pacific Educators of the Visually Impaired (SPEVI)
to organize its conference in 2005. Members are also planning to promote
services for persons with visual impairment in the Pacific islands.
The West Asia Region
successfully completed its Lee projects during the year 2003 and initiated
further schemes in the year 2004. Preparations are underway for conducting
a Regional Conference and this is likely to be attended by more than 200
delegates from all over Asia. The West Asia Regional Chairperson visited
the Middle East Countries to encourage networking and the planning of
projects. It is proposed that a Middle East sub-regional meeting will
take place prior to the West Asia regional conference. Lee Foundation
projects are underway in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. A national workshop
supported by ICEVI will be organised in September 2004 in the Maldives
to orient NGOs to services related to blindness.
Taken as a whole, the regions of ICEVI are striving hard
to strengthen ICEVI’s regional/
subregional and national structures in order to improve educational opportunities
for children with visual impairment.
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