Bucharest, January 25, 2017. Sense International Romania launches today the platform www.sensabilitate.ro, the only platform in Romania accessible for people with multisensory impairments. It represents a key resource in the field of deafblindness, a meeting place for people with deafblindness, parents and families of children with deafblindness, specialists working in this field: teachers, special education teachers, psychologists, educators, social workers, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists etc.
On this platform, visitors have access to a virtual Library, where articles, books and specialist literature are available free of charge. Parents, families and not only, have at their disposal an interactive Map of specialists and services currently available, initiated by Sense International Romania for people with deafblindness – in education, health and social services, a map that will be permanently updated. The section on Courses is dedicated to all those who either start this journey or have a considerable experience in working with children with deafblindness, specialists in the social field, as well as to people who wish to learn more about this, courses which are extremely useful for understanding deafblindness and its implications.
Also, this platform contains all the information and materials that Sense International Romania has developed over more than 16 years of activity.
Through www.sensabilitate.ro, Sense International Romania will organise in March – June 2017 a national awareness campaign around deafblindness in order to change the general public perception around disability in general and sensory impairments in particular. The campaign will also inform the public about deafblindness and the specific needs of this extremely vulnerable group. The project will create links between people with deafblindness, so that they can lay the foundation of an informal group aiming at promoting the rights of people with deafblindness, including a White Chart of Deafblindness, a lobby and advocacy instrument with the purpose to improve their life.
The magazine Sensabilitate will also be available on the website, the only magazine in Romania exclusively dedicated to deafblindness. The first issue of this magazine is also launched this Wednesday, in the presence of some of the authors of the articles. Among them, we mention Mr. Vasile Adamescu, a person with deafblindness who, despite his total lack of sight and hearing, succeeded in life, becoming a teacher, a sculptor, a writer, a promoter of the rights of people with deafblindness in Romania.
The platform is part of the project Sensabilitate and the aim of this project is to improve communication and access to information for all people with deafblindness and their families in Romania, increasing the awareness about their specific needs among specialists in health, education and social services, state institutions, companies, other NGOs and mass media.
The project has been awarded winner of a grant from Orange Foundation through the programme World through Colour and Sound, edition 2016, in total value of 232.398 lei.
„Sense International Romania is the only organisation in the country working for the benefit of people with deafblindness. Deafblindness generates major difficulties in the area of communication and access to information, therefore we thought of a way to meet the needs of people with deafblindness and their families, as well as the specialists in the field, with a platform dedicated to them, full of useful and updated information, presented in an accessible, dynamic and interactive way. We will permanently improve this platform, because we wish it to become, in time, the key resource in the field of deafblindness in Romania.” Cristiana Salomie, Director Sense International Romania
“We wish for Sensabilitate.ro to become a constant source of relevant and updated information in the field of deafblindness for people who are deafblind, their families and all those providing services to them.” Amalia Fodor, Director Orange Foundation
About deafblindness
Deafblindness is a severe multisensory impairment, most times associated with other types of deficiencies. Deafblindness causes major difficulties in communication, access to information, orientation and mobility.
About Sense International Romania
Sense International Romania is a Romanian organisation established in 2001 with the purpose to improve the life of people with deafblindness and sensory impairments in our country. Through national level programmes that promote early intervention for babies born with sensory impairments, the education of children with deafblindness and the provision of vocational and pre-professionalisation services, SIR succeeds in bringing a change for the better in the life of hundreds of people with this type of disability. SIR vision is a world where all children and adults with deafblindness can become active members of society.
More information about the organisation can be found here: www.surdocecitate.ro.
For details: Cristiana Salomie, director Sense International Romania, ph. 021 413 90 40, email: csalomie@senseint.org.ro.
About Orange Foundation
Orange Romania Foundation gets involved in the community by offering support to charitable projects meant to bring positive change in the lives of disadvantaged persons. We aim at supporting these people to communicate and relate to each other, in order to integrate in the society and have a better life. Orange Foundation support charitable projects for the benefit of disadvantaged people. Together with specialised institutions and non-governmental organisations, we develop projects in the field of education, culture, health and social inclusion for the benefit of these people. http://www.fundatiaorange.ro/.