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The last five years have been productive for the ICEVI Asia Region. The members and country representatives of the region have made significant professional contributions to advocate the mission of the ICEVI. Among the countries in the region, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, and Singapore were active in implementing ICEVI involved activities. The work of the region are classified as i) policy formulation, ii) workshops and seminars, iii) research, iv) regional meetings, and v) publication.
Policy Formulation:
In this area, the contribution of ICEVI is significant. The Regional Chairperson, Dr M N G Mani, became a member of many high level working committees constituted by the Planning Commission of the Government of India, the Rehabilitation Council of India, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, and the National Council for Teacher Education in India. It is noteworthy that some of the strategies of the Asia Region Conference held at Ahmedabad in 1995 have been included in the Ninth Plan document in the area of services for the disabled submitted to the Government of India.
Mr Prayat Punongong has been nominated by the Government of Thailand as a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Youth, and the Disabled, and with his initiative, the Government has already included a section of their final document to speak to the issues, needs, and possible solutions (budgetary allocations) of and for the disabled.
Mrs Manju Samaddar, the Country Representative from Bangladesh, has created a network between various organisations working for visually impaired persons in that country for better coordination and service. The other country representatives have also worked on various committees at the regional, state, and national levels for promoting services for visually impaired persons. ICEVI's work is more well known in the Asia Region now than ever before.
Seminars and Workshops:
The Asia Region Conference was held from January 9 - 11, 1995 at Ahmedabad, India in collaboration with the Blind Men's Association. The Conference was attended by officials from various bodies of the Government, national and international level NGOs, academicians from Universities, parents, teachers, and disabled children. Besides this Conference, seminars and workshops were conducted in different member countries by the respective country representatives. 1580 teachers, headmasters, and parents were benefitted by the ICEVI involved workshops and seminars organised in different countries of the region during the period 1992 - 1997.
Research:
ICEVI has also contributed to research and development during the quinquennium. Two major research projects - one in the area of software production for braille printing work and the other in the area of development of a low-cost voice synthesiser - are significant contributions of ICEVI Asia Region to the services for visually disabled persons. In addition to the above research work, adapted instructional materials for mathematics and science, abacus, creative arts, etc. have also been developed at the workshops held in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. The Low Vision Assessment Kit developed by Dr Jill Keeffe was also field tested with 400 low vision children in the Asia Region.
Regional Meetings:
During the quinquennium, four regional committee meetings were conducted. These meetings were of great help in designing the programmes of the region. The meetings were conducted in Bangkok, Calcutta, Dhaka, and Ahmedabad, and 30 to 40% of the members attended the meetings. Due to financial constraints, ICEVI Asia Region could not sponsor country representatives to attend the meeting. However, the minutes of the meetings were circulated to all the members of the Regional Committee.
Publication:
Dissemination of information is one of the important objectives of the Asia Region. The report of the Asia Region Conference has been published in the form of a book by including important papers presented by the speakers at the conference. This report is being used by various NGOs as well as Government agencies. The "Asia Appraiser", the quarterly newsletter of the ICEVI Asia Region contains articles pertaining to curricular areas, achievements of visually disabled persons, innovations in the field, changing government policies regarding disability, etc.
In short, the work was satisfactory during the period 1992 - 97. A network between organisations has been established in the member countries and the mission of ICEVI has been made known to government and non-governmental organisations. The objective of the future should be to build on the conducive atmosphere that has been created by the Regional Chairperson and the Country Representatives during the Quinquennium.