ITALIAN ASSOCIATION for the BLIND and VISUALLY IMPAIRED
TRIESTE PROVINCIAL BRANCH
Recent events and expectations
We can say that the Italian Association for the Blind looks after and helps the blind, the deafblind, the multi-impaired and the visually impaired, from birth to adolescence, to maturity, to old age, supporting them in all sectors: education, social inclusion, employment, assistance, sport activities, recreational and cultural activities.
The Trieste branch provide escort assistance to those blind who, being alone, have no one to help them out with their basic needs. This assistance is provided by community service volunteers, and by some other volunteers who, by employing vans donated to the Association by the Cassa di Risparmio of Trieste, are always kindly available to escort the blind and elderly in need. We also point out that we managed to have a law passed from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in favor of free transport for the blind and their carers on urban and extra-urban lines.
Locally, the Italian Association for the Blind helps their associates out with pension obtaining procedures, escort allowances requests and job training.
In terms of education, it follows children and young people and provides support for their various needs concerning education and future employment. For instance, it helps out with sorting out the necessary paperwork for the achievement of special subsidies such as, among others, computers, fundamental in the modern era to be on an equal footing with other students and it also organizes language courses.
Furthermore, the branch offers and provides to all those who become blind as adults, who are the majority, Braille learning courses taught by competent teachers, mobility courses to be able to be autonomous in the surrounding environment.
With the help of the Lions Club, the Italian Association for the Blind has managed to set up an eye clinic within the premises of the Trieste branch. Here, members can, initially, thanks to the great availability of dr. Maurizio Papagno and Dr. Andrea Lovisato and now thanks to dr. Raffaele Sabella, be visited and followed also during treatments to preserve their sight residual. In this respect, the branch aims to carry out, in close contact with basic services, preschool and school depistages, an outpatient counseling and prophylaxis service, as well as detailed information.
Finally, our branch, besides reaching out to the elderly blind on a daily basis to try to solve their serious problems, sees to it that teenagers and young members can deepen their knowledge in their down time and dedicate themselves to sports too. In fact, we have a sports group and we practice gymnastics, skiing, tandem, dancing. In the future we expect to widen the choice to other equally interesting disciplines.
Moreover, there is the “Carlo Tomé” community center where our members of all ages meet up to attend conferences, musical performances, literary events, to discuss specific problems but also to socialize with the sighted, to play chess, drafts or cards, to sing and many other things.
We have also created the day center, open on Mondays and Thursdays afternoons, with an escort service to and from the headquarters, to allow members to get together and spend a few hours together.
Beyond these associative activities, we must take into account all the battles that the Italian Association for the Blind faces in close contact with political authorities in order to equalize the condition of the blind with that of the ordinary citizen.
Among the most important battles we point out: the constant work to remove the blind from the danger of a total social alienation, first stage of despair and anguish; the continuous search for more effective ways to ensure the safety of the blind when they’re walking through city streets, and in this regard we should mention: touch-sensitive tiles which can be already found in the city center, sound traffic lights which we have been asking for many years to be installed and still hope to succeed in getting them as soon as possible, and to have city sidewalks and street furniture fixed with a certain standard.
Among the battles for the visually impaired we highlight: yellow-painted crosswalks, bright bus numbers on signs to book a stop, a relocation of street numbers and street names signs, and many other proposals which have to be developed further.
Italian Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired – Provincial branch of Trieste
Via Cesare Battisti n.2 – 34125 – Trieste
Phone: 040/768046
Mobile: 335/6011897
E-mail: uicts@uiciechi.it