FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2008
October 22, 2008
October is White Cane
Awareness Month
Brittany’s Hope Foundation Provides White Canes to the Visually Impaired in Vietnam
Awareness Month
Brittany’s Hope Foundation Provides White Canes to the Visually Impaired in Vietnam
Elizabethtown, PA - October 22, 2008 - The Emily Cane Project is a unique and innovative partnership program which serves the vision-impaired of Vietnam while employing Vietnamese college students in the process.
A necessary and essential life skill for the vision-impaired is the ability to navigate through their world independently using their own senses and a cane. Orientation and Mobility Education teaches the visually impaired to navigate the world efficiently, effectively, and safely by focusing on sensory awareness, spatial concepts, searching and locating skills, independent movement and protective techniques which provide added protection in unfamiliar areas. Through the use of various cane techniques the vision-impaired person can learn to clear one's path or to locate objects in their typical life settings such as their home, community, workplace, and school.
The majority of vision-impaired Vietnamese citizens have never had the standard opportunity of learning Orientation and Mobility Skills. There are approximately 500,000 blind people residing in Vietnam, a majority of which are located in rural areas where health care workers have minimal instruction in eye care issues and possess limited resources for blindness prevention and treatment. Eye care services are not yet widespread throughout the country because of the many financial, technical and human resource challenges which need to be overcome, including the distribution of canes needed for independence.
The Emily Cane Project developed and implemented this essential O&M training in a very unique way, beginning in July 2005 in Ben Tre, Vietnam. Recognizing the limited resources available, several O&M instructors were hired to train 200 college students in O&M techniques which they brought into the communities where they lived. The newly-trained students distributed canes and instructed the vision-impaired people, enabling them to get around independently.
Brittany's Hope Foundation has reached over 2,000 blind and vision impaired individuals in Vietnam. We are excited to see this program grow as more children and adults learn how to adapt to life with a cane, increasing their independence and changing their lives in such a simple and profound way.
About Brittany’s Hope Foundation: Brittany's Hope Foundation is a non-profit 501 c 3 foundation committed to action by offering child-specific grants to American adoptive families through our affiliate agencies. We also continue in our humanitarian efforts through our Nutrition and Medical Intervention programs, child sponsorship opportunities, and signature projects such as Brittany's Cribs, the Emily Cane Project and the House of Love. Unicef's latest figures estimate that more than 143 million children languish in institutions and orphanages around the world; typically in countries which are under-developed and plagued by poverty, social restrictions, and war.
The funds raised by the generosity of the community enable us to provide action which changes; it changes hunger into health, homelessness into homecoming, and helplessness into hopefulness for the world's orphans. To learn more about how you can support the Emily Cane Project or other necessary projects at Brittany's Hope please contact Joanne Martin at martinj@brittanyshope.org, or call (717) 367-9614 or visit us at www.BrittanysHope.org.
CONTACT:
Brittany's Hope Foundation
1160 North Market Street
Elizabethtown, PA 17022
http://www.BrittanysHope.org
717-367-9614
info@brittanyshope.org
« Back to Press ReleasesA necessary and essential life skill for the vision-impaired is the ability to navigate through their world independently using their own senses and a cane. Orientation and Mobility Education teaches the visually impaired to navigate the world efficiently, effectively, and safely by focusing on sensory awareness, spatial concepts, searching and locating skills, independent movement and protective techniques which provide added protection in unfamiliar areas. Through the use of various cane techniques the vision-impaired person can learn to clear one's path or to locate objects in their typical life settings such as their home, community, workplace, and school.
The majority of vision-impaired Vietnamese citizens have never had the standard opportunity of learning Orientation and Mobility Skills. There are approximately 500,000 blind people residing in Vietnam, a majority of which are located in rural areas where health care workers have minimal instruction in eye care issues and possess limited resources for blindness prevention and treatment. Eye care services are not yet widespread throughout the country because of the many financial, technical and human resource challenges which need to be overcome, including the distribution of canes needed for independence.
The Emily Cane Project developed and implemented this essential O&M training in a very unique way, beginning in July 2005 in Ben Tre, Vietnam. Recognizing the limited resources available, several O&M instructors were hired to train 200 college students in O&M techniques which they brought into the communities where they lived. The newly-trained students distributed canes and instructed the vision-impaired people, enabling them to get around independently.
Brittany's Hope Foundation has reached over 2,000 blind and vision impaired individuals in Vietnam. We are excited to see this program grow as more children and adults learn how to adapt to life with a cane, increasing their independence and changing their lives in such a simple and profound way.
About Brittany’s Hope Foundation: Brittany's Hope Foundation is a non-profit 501 c 3 foundation committed to action by offering child-specific grants to American adoptive families through our affiliate agencies. We also continue in our humanitarian efforts through our Nutrition and Medical Intervention programs, child sponsorship opportunities, and signature projects such as Brittany's Cribs, the Emily Cane Project and the House of Love. Unicef's latest figures estimate that more than 143 million children languish in institutions and orphanages around the world; typically in countries which are under-developed and plagued by poverty, social restrictions, and war.
The funds raised by the generosity of the community enable us to provide action which changes; it changes hunger into health, homelessness into homecoming, and helplessness into hopefulness for the world's orphans. To learn more about how you can support the Emily Cane Project or other necessary projects at Brittany's Hope please contact Joanne Martin at martinj@brittanyshope.org, or call (717) 367-9614 or visit us at www.BrittanysHope.org.
CONTACT:
Brittany's Hope Foundation
1160 North Market Street
Elizabethtown, PA 17022
http://www.BrittanysHope.org
717-367-9614
info@brittanyshope.org
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