World Blind Union - Press Release

Under the theme “Listening to the Children”, the conference will gather together more than 20 blind and partially sighted young boys and girls from 18 different countries

Pontevedra, 17th June 2008.- Some twenty blind and low vision boys and girls, coming from the five continents will take part in the “First International Congress for Blind and Partially Sighted Children”, organized from 16 to 20 June at one of the Schools of the National Organization of the Spanish Blind, (ONCE), under the auspices of the World Blind Union (WBU).

This gathering, first of its kind, is being organized and financed by ONCE in cooperation with the WBU Committee on Children and the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI). This event is also supported by UNICEF and Save The Children.

Under the theme “Listening to the Children”, this congress will provide a meeting place for blind and partially sighted teenagers from various regions of the world and with very different cultural and social backgrounds. They will hold discussions as a group on their current situation and will voice their demands and needs to those responsible for developing and implementing policies for their care and attention.

The participants, aged between 14 and 16, come from the five continents and from countries such as: Australia, Cameroon, Chile, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Gambia, India, Jamaica, Malawi, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Republic of Zimbabwe, Spain, The Netherlands, United States of America…

The programme of this gathering is organized in plenary sessions with debates among all participants, which will run during the mornings under various topics, such as the recently launched United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, reflections on the family, their peers, the community, the current society, the education and its future.

Afternoons will be devoted to workshops and cultural activities and the young boys and girls will be able to take part in music, sport or cooking classes, as well as leisure and free time activities, including trips to recreational areas and cultural excursions around Pontevedra, a nice town on the north west coast of Spain.

The conference will end with an open day, with guest representatives from international institutions and organizations from the fields of blindness and childhood, such as UNICEF, Save The Children or the WBU itself, among other organizations. During the closing ceremony, the participants will present a “blind children declaration” as a result of their debates. Its objective is to validate the message that all these youngsters let out to the world.

One and a half million children in the world suffer from visual impairment, making them invisible for most of the societies in which they live, especially in underdeveloped or developing countries.

It is estimated that, each year, there are some 500,000 new cases of childhood blindness, which means one every minute. Furthermore, 50% of blind children in the world die within two years of losing their sight.

Only 10% of blind and low vision children of the world have access to education and literacy.

Most common pathologies of childhood blindness are practically all preventable. In fact, 28% of the causes of childhood blindness can be prevented and an additional 15% can be treated. In developed countries, figures for childhood blindness are low and remain stable; on the contrary, they are soaring in developing countries.