We have produced two audio books and expanded the selection available to young visually impaired and blind readers.

• EU projects
  • I-Archeo.S.
  • Start IN Kamp
  • KUP 54+
  • C.A.L.M.
  • EQUALITY
  • EDUKOSI.TURIZAM
  • glasOmVITA
• glasOmVITA
  • We have produced two audio books and expanded the selection available to young visually impaired and blind readers.
• We have produced two audio books and expanded the selection available to young visually impaired and blind readers.

In partnership with the association “Naša djeca” Poreč, we have completed the Small Project for a Better Tomorrow “glasOmVITA”. The project in the amount of HRK 24,483.00 was funded by the Foundation for the Promotion of Partnership and Civil Society Development from the Fund of Istrian Cities and Municipalities, and its aim was to raise children’s awareness of the needs of blind persons and to increase the collection of children’s audio books.

We conclude the project with two recorded audio books, which enrich the reading choices of visually impaired and blind children not only in our town, but wherever they may live, provided they understand the Croatian language. The recorded books are “Prava svakog djeteta” (“The Rights of Every Child”), published by the Union of Societies Naša djeca Hrvatske, and “Djed Mraz u Poreču” (“Santa Claus in Poreč”) by Ivona Orlić, published by DND Poreč.

The books were read by two volunteers: Valentina Ostojić and primary school pupil Chiara Mačinić, whom we found through a call to fellow citizens to apply as volunteers for recording books. Twenty-five volunteers responded to the call, so we organized an audition at which we held a trial reading with recording. After the audition, we selected two people to record the first two books, and invited all the others to send us up to three titles they would gladly share with visually impaired and blind persons by reading them, since we will continue the audio-book recording programme even after the completion of this project. Through this project, POU Poreč acquired equipment for a sound studio for recording audio books and trained an external associate, Marina Radošić, for recording in line with the demanding criteria of the existing audio library within the foundation Čujem, vjerujem, vidim.

The library Čujem, vjerujem, vidim was founded to provide library services to blind and visually impaired persons, persons with other visual impairments and perceptual difficulties, and to those who, due to disability, are not able to hold a book or handle it, or to focus or move their eyes to the extent needed to read. The editor and head of the Audio Library is Mirko Hrkač, who was an external associate on our Small Project for a Better Tomorrow.

Through the project, we have raised awareness among more than sixty primary-school children with interactive workshops led by the project’s external associate, Marina Radošić. Drawing on her own experience as a blind person, she devised an engaging concept to make children aware of the challenges she faces in everyday life. The workshops were organized with schoolchildren in the branch schools in Žbandaj and Nova Vas, and later in the associations DND and USB. Given how the children responded to the workshop, there is an opportunity for them to be organized again in the future.

The results of this project directly benefit blind persons by enriching the collection of audio books, but they also make a lasting contribution to a better tomorrow for all of us, because, in the long run, only those communities that actively include all their members and groups and care for their specific needs can truly prosper.