Independent movement is a prerequisite for the independence and inclusion of visually impaired people in society, it was said at the conference of the Association of the Blind of Montenegro "Unfold the stick and start the adventure of independent movement" within the project of the same name.
The project is implemented by the Association of the Blind, in partnership with the Organization of the Blind for Nikšić, Šavnik and Plužine, and is financed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.
In his opening address, the president of the Association of the Blind, Andrija Samardžić, reminded that the project has been implemented for more than a year, and that the initial goals have been exceeded.
"One general goal was set, which is to improve the status of people with visual impairment by including them in all spheres of social life and organizing training for movement with the help of a white cane, and that general goal was realized through the achievement of two specific goals - the inclusion of people with visual impairment in all spheres of life and, what is very important, raising awareness of the importance of support for life in the community. It is not enough just to gather a certain number of professional workers, which we successfully achieved, and to gather a certain number of visually impaired people who are ready to decide to move independently with the help of a white cane, but also to let the wider community know how important independent life and how important it is to move independently with the help of a white cane," said Samardžić, as reported by the Media Bureau.
The training for the training of professional workers who will provide training for the visually impaired was organized in two modules of seven days each in October and December 2023. Three participants were trained, of which two instructors are currently engaged, who worked with four participants during the two-month training - people with visually impaired. The training was led by Aksinja Kermauner, peripathologist from Slovenia.
"In addition to improving the existing theoretical knowledge we had, we also gained very good practical knowledge that our mentor Aksinja provided us through two modules by putting us in the position of a visually impaired person. Everything we learned, we learned from the position of a visually impaired person. The plan and program was only the skeleton of our work, field work requires many changes and meeting many challenges. From the realistic set goal of three routes, we managed to expand some parts. The results have been achieved, but our users will best say how successful the training was. With effort and work, anything can be achieved, you need to be persistent. You can overcome the biggest obstacles and fears you have," said the instructor for independent movement with the help of a white cane, Albina Smailović.
Another instructor for independent movement with the help of a white stick, Dragana Đurić, shared her positive experience from that training.
"Evolutionarily, independent movement has preserved us as a species, so that alone confirms how important this training was for our users, their independence and inclusion in society. They were persistent and disciplined, so for me as an instructor, this work was very useful, not only as a professional, but also as a person who changed my view of the world. I saw how important independent movement is for each of us and how much an inclusive life in the community is a consequence of that. The goals have been achieved, and some have been expanded," said Đurić.
The participants of the training for independent movement with the help of a white cane shared their positive experiences.
"When I heard that this project was being released, I couldn't allow myself the luxury of not participating in it. Before the project, I was partially moving on my own, but it's not the same when you go on an adventure yourself and when someone is an expert with you. I want to tell future users to unfold the stick and go on an adventure and success will be guaranteed. Thanks to this project, today I can perform all daily activities independently," said Adnan Kujović.
Another participant, Bojana Otašević, pointed out that she has been using the white cane for 13 years, but that only with this significant training did she learn to use its full potential.
"As the training started, everything changed, I learned new techniques and how to hold the white stick correctly. The fact is that before the training I moved very little and I depended on the will of my family and friends to help me. There were fears, I underestimated myself, I thought that I would not overcome some routes. My motivation was that one day I would not be dependent on anyone and that I would be able to go to certain places on my own. After the training, I met with a great understanding of the environment and their approach changed, I got a feeling of independence, freedom and independence," said Otašević.
The opening speeches were followed by a panel discussion "The role and importance of support services for the independent movement of visually impaired persons" in which representatives of key institutions for the issue of social protection, both at the state and local levels, participated, Media Bureau reports.
The representative of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Marina Kamberović, took part in the discussion, who reminded that Article 60 of the Law on Social and Child Protection prescribes social and child protection services, support for life in the community, and advisory-therapeutic and social-educational services, as well as accommodation and urgent intervention services.
"The purpose of the day care service is to improve the quality of life of the users in their own social environment through the maintenance and development of social, psychological and physical skills in order to prepare them for an independent life, which is what we are talking about here. Help at home is support for users in meeting their daily needs in order to improve and maintain the quality of life. The purpose of the personal assistance service is to provide individual practical support that is necessary for the user to meet personal needs, to engage in educational, work and social activities in the community in order to establish the highest possible level of independence," stated Kamberović.
The representative of the Secretariat for Social Welfare of the Capital City, Anđela Radovanović, pointed out that the Capital City also offers services for people with disabilities, which are planned by the Local Social Inclusion Plan.
"This is also an invitation to other local governments that implement various services for people with disabilities to follow our example, but also the examples they can certainly get from PWD organizations, to start in direct cooperation with them to check what the users need. What separates Podgorica from other cities is that we have a wide open door for PWD organizations to listen to their every suggestion and to continue to improve them based on feedback from service users from the field, because we are aware that what we provide is enough, but that we "A lot of work is still needed to achieve what is defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities," said Radovanović.
Miloš Ristić, head of the Institute for Social and Child Protection, agrees that there is still room for improvement. He specifically referred to the accreditation of training similar to training for independent movement with the help of a white cane, which was the focus of yesterday's conference.
"More training programs should always be accredited, I personally don't know a single science that has completed its activities, especially one area such as social and child protection. For the last two years, the Institute has been trying to stimulate the accreditation of training programs by paying certain funds to training authors to organize their training. The role of professionals in this process is crucial because I responsibly claim that no one but them can better recognize what knowledge and skills are needed by other professionals in practice, so we stimulate them and raise awareness of the importance of program accreditation," said Ristić.
The executive director of the Association of the Blind, Goran Macanović, followed up on the story about services and their legal regulation, and pointed out that some legal norms are still not applied in practice.
"We cannot license and introduce the service of a sighted companion, which the Association of the Blind has been very successfully implementing for three years, because the law does not mention a sighted companion as a service, and we cannot subsume it under Other services to support life in the community, which means that in that part, the Act, whether the Act on Social or Child Protection, or some bylaw, should be amended. What is very important is for the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare to seriously deal with the analysis of the rulebook on participation in the payment of services prescribed by the Law on Social or Child Protection," said Macanović.
At the conference, in addition to participants from Montenegro, guests from the region, i.e. peripathologists, representatives of institutions, training participants and instructors shared their experiences in the field of independent movement. Experiences from the Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity Republika Srpska were presented to the attendees by the representative of the Association of the Blind of the RS, Branko Suzić, and the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was presented by the representative of the Organization of the Blind Cantons of Sarajevo, Fikret Zuko. The representative of the Association of the Blind of Serbia, Goran Pećanac, and the representative of the Organization of the Blind in the City of Belgrade, Nikola Đorđević, presented the current situation regarding the position of visually impaired people in Serbia, while Nikolina Kušterbajn and Antonia Papić from the Association of the Blind in Croatia pointed out the specific circumstances in Croatia.
Executive Macanović closed the conference, which "raised many questions and called representatives of state and local authorities to action."
"We will not stop here! We expect the support of the European Union of the Blind, we have a very well-developed cooperation with them until we see whether the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare will realize what a mistake they made in relation to the refusal to finance a sighted companion, and of course we have the capital, the Municipality of Nikšić and the Municipality of Pljevlja. who provided us with funds for the service of a sighted companion this year, and I hope that this support will also extend to training for independent movement. Greater independence in the movement of people with visual impairment is a prerequisite for independent living and independent functioning," underlined Macanović.
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