Last Saturday, the Voir Ensemble association held its AG in Douelle. A review of past and future actions.
In a room lent by the town hall of Douelle, the association See Together of the department held its general meeting last Saturday. To discover the association, just read article 1 of its statutes: “to promote and ensure intellectual, social, moral, cultural, material well-being and fulfillment through education, work, leisure, sports for the blind or visually impaired…”.
Bénédicte Lanes-Fournié came to welcome the people of the association already present before the meeting was held. The activity report, presented by the president Jacques Soulayrès, was voted unanimously, like the accounts, presented by the treasurer, Nicole Bonnet. In 2022, the association managed to organize two activities: a visit to the Saint-Géry Memorial and to Figeac in the footsteps of Champollion. The association also contacted the branch of the Institute for Young Blind People in Bégoux, which will open in September 2023. The association took part in a meeting with the MDH 46 (Departmental House for the Handicapped) during of the Commission for the Rights and Autonomy of Persons with Disabilities (CDAPH). The latter receives around a hundred cases for adults and around a hundred for young people with disabilities at the rate of two meetings a month for the allocation of aid.
Voir Ensemble also participated in several general meetings, including that of Unadev (National Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired), in Paris. This organization has 2 branches in Toulouse and Perpignan and offers computer and telephony courses by distance trainers, training in the use of canes and finances part of the aid from Lot Aide à Domicile. But also, that of the sound library.
The association took part in the disabled sports day in Figeac, the APF event day, and distributed flyers to make itself known. On this subject, the president encouraged the members to make discover the association around them because it is necessary to make Voir Ensemble grow and to encourage people to become carers (the contribution to the association is free for them). But also to help other visually impaired people to come out of their isolation.
Because it’s another world that lives in parallel with that of the able-bodied and tries to live in a system totally adapted to sighted people: it’s a feat! In the big cities, equipment is slowly being put in place to help, but in the countryside we are far from it. Imagine trying to get to a bus stop on a country road with no sidewalks, get to a medical specialist, get groceries, or just get some fresh air, it’s an obstacle course. These people need a helper for the slightest rural trip. So some withdraw into themselves for lack of nearby help. And is it necessary to talk about the physical fatigue and mental load of caregivers?
2% of Lot’s population suffers from a disability, the visually impaired are included in this value but their number is unknown.