SOCIETY: Spanish Project Aids Blind in Latin America

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Feb 25 1999 (IPS) - A Spanish foundation is putting two million dollars into a cooperative scheme for projects to assist the blind population of Latin America – an estimated three to four million persons.

The Secretary of Foundation 11 for Solidarity with the Blind People of Latin America (Once-Lat), Enrique Perez, said his group also was looking for contributions from the Spanish government’s cooperative funds help to bolster the projects. Once-Lat’s partner in the projects is the Latin American Union of Blind People (ULAC).

King Juan Carlos of Spain is the honorary president of Once- Lat, which has as vice presidents the Nobel laureate and ex- president of Costa Rica Oscar Arias and the ex-president of Portugal Mario Soares.

Members of the Board of Directors are, among others, Chilean deputy Isabel Allende, Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso, Uruguayan professor Enrique Elissalde and the president of the Inter- American Development Bank Enrique Iglesias, also from Uruguay.

Jose Maria Arroyo from Spain, president of the National Organization of Blind People of Spain (ONCE), also holds the post of executive president of Once-Lat which, since its founding in mid-1988, has developed various projects in Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.

“It is not an attempt to translate the model of ONCE to Latin America, as the conditions are very different from those in Spain, but rather to establish bases of information adequate for the realities of each country,” according to Perez.

Eighty-seven percent of the aid forecast for 1999 is destined for programs in education and professional training, rehabilitation and promotion of work, including self-employment and leadership training for managers of small and medium-sized businesses.

In essence, the program consists of the training of blind and visually impaired people in the sectors of associative culture, public relations, raising economic resources, general knowledge and the different aspects of managing a business.

“It is an attempt to provide complete training and create a nucleus of production, small at first but, with time,it should be growing,” explained Perez, who is also a member of the Foundation Board.

He said, however, problems still existed in a number of Latin American countries where the fragmentation of organizations for blind people created a serious inconvenience.

A good example of the type of aid project the Foundation supports is in Ecuador where 100 positions for blind and visually impaired people will be set up to enable them to operate mall kiosks selling newspapers, magazines, snacks and other low-cost items.

For those workers who are unable to make a down payment to buy one of these stands, Once-Lat will provide a long-term loan with no interest payments.

For this project, the Foundation is contributing 150,000 dollars, the Ecuadorian government another 65,000 dollars, and the Anditel telephone company installed lines into the kiosks at a cost of 23,000 dollars.

A similar project is being carried out in Chile, where the selection of blind vendors to take charge of the future kiosks is taking place.

The Foundation has reached an agreement with the Hipodromos Argentinos society, through which that group is making a commitment to earmark 0.5 percent of its ticket sales for the creation of jobs for blind and visually impaired people.

Compared to Spain, where most blind people have paid jobs, it is estimated that barely 10 percent of the visually impaired population of Latin America has salaried employment.

The majority of them are men and their average age is between 30 and 50 years. Accordingly, young people, women and the elderly constitute the group most marginalized with respect to access to jobs.

The majority of Latin American countries have ratified Convention 159 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which stipulates that 4 percent of civil service jobs be occupied by people with disabilities.

Perez noted, however, that experts had determined that most governments do little or nothing to find solutions to the problems faced by blind people in the various Latin American countries.

Likewise, he said there was insufficient “networking” between leaders of the different associations of blind people.

Thus Once-Lat considered that training programmes were essential to achieve their final objective – – the social and labor integration of blind people. (FIN/IPS/td/dg/dv/hd/ks/99)