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Strategic Partnership Beyond Barriers and Borders

What is it about?

The project “Beyond barriers and borders” aims to encourage the exchange of competences between young visually impaired people (18-30 years old) and older people (50+ years old). The competences in question are:

  • daily living skills (cooking, ironing, doing the laundry, etc.):
  • IT skills (the use of computer, smartphone, Braille displays etc.);
  • interpersonal communication skills;
  • reading, writing and counting techniques (including Braille and new technologies).

In short, it is not “only” an intercultural exchange, but also an intergenerational experience. A ground-breaking strategic partnership for Views International!

The project consists of three 5-day trainings in Warsaw (Poland), Liège (Belgium) and Vienna (Austria), preceded by preparatory meetings only for the organizers.

Who can attend the trainings?

Each training will be attended by 30 visually impaired people (10 per country), between 18 and 30 years of age, who will be assisted by 4 guides. Besides attending the three meetings, participants should also attend a local event to disseminate the results of the project, and should be available for Skype/phone meetings and e-mail exchanges from April 2017 to end June 2018. Moreover, they should be able to communicate in English.

First transnational preparatory meeting

The first preparatory meeting took place on 7th February 2017 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting saw the participation of Anca David and Tamara Scharping, on behalf of VIEWS International, as well as those representing the co-ordinating organization (Polish Association for the Blind, PZN) and the other partner organization (Austrian Federation for the Blind and Partially Sighted, BSVO).

During the meeting, the project partners discussed the first steps of the project, fixed some dates and outlined the content of the meetings:

  • training in Warsaw (30th May-4th June 2017): to exchange competences about reading and writing thanks to the newest technologies;
  • training in Liège (16th-21st November 2017): about daily living skills such as cooking, choice of clothing and image creation;
  • training in Vienna (9th-13th March 2018): about accessible devices for the visually impaired (tablettes, smartphones, applications, GPS devices) and interpersonal communications skills.

An official invitation has been sent out recently. In any case, whoever is interested can contact VIEWS International's Executive Office (office@viewsinternational.eu, +32 4 375 35 20).