Upshawinst

Leidy woke up blind one morning in 2011. Francia could not see it anymore. Deprived of sight, these women have developed another meaning: the touch through which today in Colombia they detect breast cancer.

Leidy Garcia and Francia Papamija are two of five blind or partially sighted people trained in Cali (western Colombia) to prevent breast cancer, the most prevalent in the country with 7,000 new cases each year and 2,500 deaths. Both blind, they followed in 2015 the method of the German physician Frank Hoffmann (video link below).

Detect nodules

For the last ten years, he has argued that blind people have the ability to detect nodules – clumps of cells – which are often the first symptom of the disease. “People with visual impairments have an increased sensitivity, a sense of touch developed that allows them to better distinguish the elements” allowing a diagnosis, told AFP surgeon Luis Alberto Olave, coordinator of the program “Hands that save lives ” from San Juan de Dios Hospital to Cali. Some 71,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year worldwide. Dr. Hoffmann’s method, applied in Germany and Austria, reached Colombia with the support of the Latin American Development Bank (CAF).

Better results

Five women aged 25 to 35, including one Mexican, were selected. They should not have any vascular or neurological problems that could alter their sensitivity. Then they were trained as auxiliaries of tactile examinations. Since then, they have received more than 900 patients. “We are fighting a prejudice that because we have a disability we can not think or be autonomous,” said Francia, 35, who lost her sight following a retinal detachment at the age of seven. Cali hospital officials realized that the exams performed by these women gave “better” results than those following the usual procedure. “The clinical exam they perform is more elaborate, lasts longer, which gives patients a feeling of comfort they did not have with a traditional doctor , ” Dr. Olave added. While a self-examining woman can detect 15-20mm nodules and a 10mm doctor, blind aids detect smaller, 8mm nodules.

A 45-minute examination

Leidy almost totally lost sight six years ago. Her career as a topography engineer stopped overnight due to a cerebral thrombosis that blinded her left eye and severely impaired her right. “People who see well are guided by what they see, I am guided by touch and hearing,” says the 26-year-old brunette. Leidy palpates the breasts of his patients by guiding with a yellow and red ribbon, which has a raised pattern every centimeter to locate the possible nodules. When she detects a suspicious mass, she reports it to the doctor who, depending on the case, can order additional tests to confirm whether or not cancer is present. The initial examination lasts up to 45 minutes against 10 for the traditional method. Francia as Leidy say that patients are sometimes curious, others suspicious. Some do not even speak to them, others tell them their lives.

Source of jobs

“Their touch is so precise.In fact, I’m amazed because they show great professionalism,” said one of them, a 42-year-old shopkeeper. “They found something, but the doctor said it was only an inflamed ganglion , ” says the mother of two. Before being trained in this method of diagnosis, Francia and Leidy were out of work, as 62% of the 500,000 people with visual impairment in Colombia, seven times more than the average population in this country of 48 million inhabitants. , according to the National Institute of the Blind. Dr. Olave believes that it is a source of employment for the visually impaired and he hopes to start a new training in the first quarter of 2018. “In developing countries, whose access to diagnostic technologies is sometimes limited” , the manual examination “is very important,” he explains. His two assistants, for their part, intend to demonstrate that they can save lives and that it is society that treats them as invalids. Francia emphasizes that she wants to live “as a normal person” and express it with both fine and saving hands.

Shock calendar for 2015 published by the Federation of the Blind. It puts in scene politicians and other personalities, in order to “wake up the consciences”. Its slogan: “Accessibility 2005-2015, we still do not see anything coming”!

The Federation of the Blind of France (FAF) made public on January 22, 2015, a shock calendar, putting in scene politicians and other personalities, with the aim to “wake up the consciences” whereas the objectives of accessibility fixed by the law handicap of 2005 are far from being fulfilled. We see in particular President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, as well as UMP President Nicolas Sarkozy and the coach of the Bleus Didier Deschamps, wearing black glasses and white cane.

A birthday with a bitter taste

“Accessibility 2005-2015, we still see nothing coming,” says the calendar cover page, as we approach the 10th anniversary of the law disability of 11 February 2005. This law was particularly set the goal of making public places and accessible transport for people with disabilities within 10 years. But in view of the delay, the government has granted new deadlines ranging from three to nine years. The Federation of Blind and Visually Impaired People of France has been publishing a humorous calendar for the past five years to raise public awareness of low vision, which affects a total of some 2 million people, including approximately 80,000 blind people.

A lack of “political courage”

This year, she wanted to denounce a “clear lack of political courage and the renunciation of the promises” concerning the accessibility of public places, but also to question on the difficulties of access in the broad sense (education, culture, employment), explains- she. The personalities are usually sketched without this being a problem. Only the hijacked photo of PSG player Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2013 had aroused a strong reaction from the Paris club, which had not finally responded to his threats.

Freedom of expression

“To awaken sleeping consciences and sting this society anesthetized by fear and discouragement, it will certainly take much more than a calendar, according to the Federation of the Blind and Visually Impaired in France” . But she also hopes “that this tool will inspire humor, dialogue and sharing, all of which we all badly need. These deliberately provocative images take on even more meaning in these days when freedom of expression has just been so brutally questioned. “

This calendar can be obtained against a donation to the FAF. It marks the beginning of a vast campaign that will lead throughout 2015, with the slogan “More than ever, citizenship, it looks us! “

A first in Paris! The Valentin Haüy Association opens a space to make life easier for blind and visually impaired people. This SAVS offers them solutions on a daily basis. Inauguration on November 26 and open day on the 27th.

To live, quite simply, for a blind or visually impaired person, it’s a real fight! How to feed, move, shop, maintain your living space, get information, learn a trade, find work, do paperwork, get distracted, learn, play sports when you’re blind or visually impaired? It can not be improvised! It is necessary to acquire know-how to ensure these gestures of everyday life, to learn to live with a visual handicap.

Professionals listening

Developing one’s daily autonomy is one of the priorities of the Valentin Haüy Association. It has therefore created a structure: the Social Support Service for the Visually Impaired (DVS SAVS). A first in Paris! This offer offers beneficiaries a real tailor-made accompaniment led by professionals: social worker, social and family economics consultant, psychologist, locomotion instructor, life-skills trainer, braille trainer, adapted computer trainer.

On MDPH orientation

This SAVS DV is intended primarily for Parisians who have been living in Paris for more than 3 months and who are visually impaired with or without associated disability (s), living at home and aged between 20 and 60 years old. The care is delivered by the Departmental House of Disabled People (MDPH) of Paris. Registration requests are sent either to the Paris MDPH or directly to the DVS SAVS headquarters. The structure, located at 3 rue Jacquier, in the 14th, offers 35 seats.

Assistance in all areas

For Bernard Serre, project manager to the secretary general of the AVH, who became accidentally blind at 20, “I know how much rehabilitation has helped me to find the necessary skills to lead a normal life and a professional career. It was necessary to create a functional rehabilitation service for the recently blind, and above all, a personalized reception place in all areas of social and professional integration. Today, it is done with this SAVS DV Parisian.

Open House on November 27

This SAVS is inaugurated, within the framework of the Extraordinary Month organized by the City of Paris, Monday, November 26, and is open to the public on November 27 for a unique visit, in situation, especially through a blindfolded journey, an initiation Braille, cooking and DIY workshops, and visiting a tactile exhibition. This day? the blind “is held from 9h to 17h (free admission).

A long-standing international copyright treaty is expected to be concluded Thursday in Marrakesh, Morocco, to allow hundreds of millions of blind and partially sighted people to have better access to books.

A long-standing international copyright treaty is expected to conclude Thursday in Marrakesh, Morocco, to allow hundreds of millions of blind and partially sighted people to have better access to books published around the world said Wednesday close source negotiations.

Several hundred negotiators from the 186 member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have been meeting for a week in Marrakech (South) to finalize a treaty to overcome this issue of copyright, which limits access visually impaired to culture.
According to the World Blind Union (WBU), of the one million books published each year, less than 5% ” are published in formats accessible to the visually impaired “. These are some 314 million, 90% of which are in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

” We have a treaty! It was adopted in the night (Tuesday to Wednesday, ed) by the main committee of the diplomatic conference ,” said Wednesday to AFP a source close to the negotiations. The text “will be presented at the plenary session on Thursday, and the signing ceremony will take place on Friday,” added the source. “We are very happy, like all associations of the blind and civil society, it is a huge victory (…) that will change the lives of millions of people in a very concrete way,” he said. AFP the director of the NGO KEI (Knowledge Ecology International), present in Morocco.

The exact content of the future ” Marrakesh Treaty ” is not yet known. But, according to WIPO, the project was to obtain copyright waivers from 186 countries for the formats concerned – including Braille -, particularly in terms of ” cross-border trade “. This treaty is intended to crown more than ten years of negotiations when, apart from ” limitations and exceptions “, international law requires the authorization of the author and / or the payment of royalties for any use of a protected work.

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which dates back to 1886, provides for ” exceptions ” to copyright, while leaving it to the national authorities to clarify them, which has resulted in a ” maquilla “according to WIPO. Promoters of a treaty for the visually impaired were able to build on the adoption in 2006 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that ” laws protecting intellectual property rights must not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to the access of persons with disabilities to cultural products “.

In Marrakech, the NGOs had put pressure on the delegations, some of whom expressed their fear of opening up excessive loopholes in copyright. On Monday, a sit-in was organized by the UMA to urge “to take into consideration the noble humanitarian aspect of this treaty “. ” We are at the dawn of a crucial period in history, ” said American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder in a message broadcast at the opening of the conference. ” If you manage to adopt this treaty over the next few days, I promise you to come to Marrakech to share the celebrations, ” he added.

Ophelia lost her sight following a horse kick in her face. On November 3 and 4, 2018, she is in the running for the para-reining world championship, which is being held at Equita’Lyon. The queen of western riding. 

Western riding for all: the Lyon Horse Show, which is the largest gathering of western riding outside the American continent, will welcome disabled riders for the first time in France in a para-reining competition (dressage for disabled riders). The Salon Equita Longines opened its doors on October 31, 2018 at the exhibition park Eurexpo and will welcome until Sunday, November 4 3,500 horses, donkeys and ponies on a surface of 140,000 m 2 .

Eight committed countries

With 22,000 euros, the World Para-Reining Challenge is an international competition organized by WPR (World Para-Reining), an association founded by Lisa Coulter, a non-profit organization that develops adapted reining programs. people with physical disabilities. The reining is to western riding what dressage is to classic riding. Para-reining is practiced at all levels, from beginner to international competition, thanks to the mental dispositions of American horses, extremely docile and manageable. Eight countries-Great Britain, the United States, Belgium, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Italy and France-will each be represented by a team of one to three riders.

A kick to the face

Ophélie de Favitski’s rider, after having passed the para-equestrian jumping competition, will be in the French team. This blind rider will ride a 15-year-old quarter horse, Leo-Dyn Boogie DC. She will compete in a team event on November 3rd and an individual event the next day to try to win the para-reining World Championship. ” It’s complicated to change the classic riding codes to Western riding, I’ve been training with my horses for a month and a half, especially having the reins more relaxed. actions. it is a riding that asks to be less toned horse “, told AFP the rider, 38, who lost his sight 15 years ago after receiving a horse kick in the face.

Western: more accessible riding

According to her, ” for riders with disabilities, western riding is more accessible than traditional riding “. ” We are better stuck in the western saddle and this riding can be done with one or two hands, the horses are very fine and require less strength, it is an interesting horse riding ,” she said. As for Canadian rider Janice Boucher, whose Parkinson’s disease was diagnosed 5 years ago, she believes ” this competition is a real showcase for para-reining “.

The animated series Mimi & Lisa returns to talk blindness to children and prove to them that anything can happen with their eyes closed! The two heroines, indoors from November 21, 2018, offer children other ways to see the world.

Two years. This is the time it took to find Mimi & Lisa, the two characters in the eponymous series, dealing with blindness. Aimed at children, this cartoon returns to theaters November 21, 2018 with Christmas Lights , a program of four short films to watch from five years!

The prism of the handicap

Shy and blind, Mimi perceives the world differently through her other senses. Lisa, her surly neighbor, is always ready to laugh and provoke funny situations. Together, the two little girls will live, with a little advance, the magic of Christmas with the imagination for only border. Always at the helm of the production, Katarína Kerekesová is surrounded by Ivana Šebestová, another Slovakian director, who knows the world of childhood well.

A desire to share

Their desire is above all to make an impression: ” As mothers, we want to show our children what our society has to offer. We want to share with them our passions , explain the two directors. Their world is built with their experiences and the images on which they look. In order to participate in this construction, we wanted to bring new momentum and new ideas . “. The program awakens the senses even in the youngest and alert on everything we do not see. The two girls open the way to a world of sensations, in all simplicity: ” Through the adventures of Mimi & Lisa, we want to show that the imagination is stronger than anything and this despite the handicap “.

Christmas and its values

” This new program always feeds on the values ​​of life, focusing mainly on the more traditional Christmas ones , continue Katarína and Ivana. In one of the short films, the two girls take a trip back in time to meet their neighbors in the age of innocence. This immersion in the past helps to highlight the power and influence of our memories on our lives. “. The film will premiere on Sunday, November 18 at 11 am during an exceptional session at the Palais du Cinema in Paris, then in some rooms of Lyon, Grenoble, Amiens or Marseille from 21 November 2018.

Shocking are the details that come to light in a new case of “detention” of disabled people in the Care Center for Children with Disabilities in Lechena Ilia in cages while this time a tragic heroine of another shame story is a 7-year-old blind girl

Shocking are the details that come to light in a new case of “detention” of disabled people at the Children’s Care Center for Children with Disabilities in Lechena Ilia in cages, and this time a tragic heroine of another shame story, is a 7-year-old blind girl.

The children were alone in their beds, gazing at the white ceiling of the room for hours on a daily basis. According to informal personnel, suppressive drugs were administered. Young children were lying on children’s beds that had blankets around to protect themselves from self-injury, and some, though very young, were tied to their bed with cloth to prevent self-harm “, these are the images described by the Ombudsman Citizen, regarding the conditions prevailing in the Center.

In a publication of the on-line “Ethnos”, the story of a blind girl who has lived in a cage since the age of 7 was revealed. This August ended in August 18, and just 2.5 years ago she knew she had a name.

One intervention team took over from the cage it had been forced to learn to live, as did dozens of other people with disabilities.

“They have visited her ever since we assumed two presidents of the Blind Rehabilitation Center, with the current one, Mr. Menelaos Tsauousis, and they feel they were just a blind child who was not trained. I feel sensed because it is now 18 and one can not make a retrospective diagnosis. So we imagine that because they were blind, they left her for a few years, but just started falling and beating, they simply put the child in a cage. There are others like this girl.

At least 10 people found Down with Syndrome not walking, while this syndrome alone is not a biological reason for not to walk. They did not walk because they were constantly stuck or caged. There was a girl who had put it in the cage for a while because it rained his head … what to tell you, do you understand? I do not want to be melodramatic, but we really talk about people who stole their lives, “Pathy Sotiropoulou, a member of the intervention team of the Institute of Child Health, told the newspaper.

Experts have not yet managed to leave the 18-year-old completely out of the cage, since their multi-year incarceration does not allow for immediate treatment. As Mrs Sotiropoulou says, “We are preparing a more soft space because it is blind and has not learned. We take it out 1-2 times a day, listen to music, play, learn, see the sun. He fell and hit sometimes and stitched. Thousands of times the stitches but continuity in the cage, I say. But if the intervention team leaves in December, I do not know what will happen. “

Until 2016, dozens of handicapped children and adults, in particular 36, lived under torture in the Canton of Lebanon, being either tied handcuffs or living in cages as they suffer from serious illnesses that could lead to self-harm.

In the past 2.5 years, with the intervention of the group, 30 out of a total of 36 people managed to “break their shackles”. There are, however, still some who have not escaped these conditions.

As Mrs Sotiropoulou emphasizes, until December, when her action ends, which is also supported financially by the British organization Lumos of Gi. K. Rowling (the well-known Harry Potter writer) are hoping to “get the rest out, which is not easy, as some have lived so long, seeking to put them in, they are afraid they will fall unless they are tied up “.

Apart from the 18-year history of the “Nation”, she also reveals the case of two girls who left the Children’s Care Center with disabilities in 2016 and managed to learn basic things like going to the toilet. “One, the little one, makes a puzzles with closed eyes. They had her in a busy rum, “says Mrs. Sotiropoulou.

In December 2017, the government announced the deinstitutionalization of disabled people hosted by the CECP Lechene, with announcements made by Labor Minister Efi Atsioglou and Social Assistant Minister of Social Affairs, Theano Photiou.

Actions for deinstitutionalisation, according to the same instrument, include the development of accommodation facilities for people with disabilities, the development of a professional underwriting program, a short infrastructure for disabled people, the creation of a mobile unit providing supportive services to families with people with disabilities, creative employment centers, etc.

However, as noted by Yorgos Nikolaidis, a psychiatrist and director of Mental Health and Social Welfare at the Institute of Child Health, nothing has been done so far.

“We made proposals with Lumos NGOs to develop specific structures. A budget of over € 8.5 million has been approved by the budget overrun. In the Joint Ministerial Decision, a detailed plan was published on how to use the money for new structures and to close this institution. But after 11 months, nothing has happened. While there is money and plan. However, our plan has not been adopted or announced otherwise. Indeed, due to the election year that comes, we are afraid that they will eventually become rough roofs for a dozen of the 45 people and staffed with auxiliary staff, that is, without predicting what will happen after a year, while the foundation will continue to function. If that happens, and you go back to the institution three months after we leave, I’m afraid they will restart the ties. “

The issue was dealt with in 2014 by the BBC

The British network had publicized images of mentally retarded children who spent much of the day in cage-like rooms and beds.

The report reported that children with disabilities are “locked in cages” in Greece where people with disabilities are stigmatized and may be struggling to get the support they need. Staff at KEPE Lehene says he wants to improve living conditions for children, but there are not enough financial resources. Sixty members of staff take care of more than 65 disabled children.