Keat

The Center for Education and Rehabilitation for the Blind, the only public Organization in Greece, provides services to visually impaired people of all ages, concerning education and rehabilitation, on a national level. The main objective of both Centers (Athens – Thessaloniki), is the complete education of the visually impaired people, through all the stages of development. Moreover, the Center aims to reduce the consequences of visual impairment and to achieve social integration, from the childhood, through special programs, counseling and psychological support. Finally, the Center tries to create those circumstances which will connect the visually impaired people with the job market, in order to succeed the complete independence and the completion of the personality. In more detail, the objectives are:

  • a) Coverage and confrontation of educational, occupational and spiritual needs of visually impaired people.
  • b) Applied modern methods and educational programs – usage and provision of modern technology.
  • c) Research for the improvement of rehabilitation methods, expertise for the consequences of blindness to the family and to society.
  • d) Prevention of blindness – early treatment.
  • e) Establishment of appropriate permanent care units for people, who due to multiple disability or age, are excluded from rehabilitation programs.
  • f) Fighting prejudices and eliminating social and legal obstacles, so as to offer equal opportunities and participation to the blind in all walks of life.

Services Provided:

  • 1. Department of Infant and Nursery Education and Support. It aims to provide specialized care to children with visual impairments from their birth until they reach the age of five years old.
  • 2. Supporting Lessons – tutorial support for junior High and High-school. Individualized support teaching (tutorials) is provided to students during afternoons, for their knowledge enrichment, in order to respond better to the daily schedule of the regular school they attend.
  • 3. Boarding House In the contemporary Boarding House, in double or triple rooms with ensuite facilities, hospitality, care and welfare are provided, 24 hours a day, to visually impaired students, aged 6-18, throughout the school year.
  • 4. Social Service. Its role isn’t a static one, as it constantly searches for methods and interventions, to deal more efficiently with issues of its responsibility.
  • 5. Department of Orientation – Mobility (O&M) and Daily Living Skills (DLS). Provision of individualized training in autonomous mobility techniques and DLS. More specifically, this kind of training, which is the cornerstone for the development of an autonomous and independent person, is provided based on the age, the visual impairment, the acceptance of the disability and the general abilities of the person.
  • 6. Department of Physical Education and Sport Activities The purpose of this department is to contribute to the physical growth of students and to their balanced mental and spiritual cultivation, in order to integrate productively into society, through a variety of kinetic and sports activities.
  • 7. Department of Traditional Music and Dance (CERB Thessaloniki). Music group and a Choir – Groups of Traditional and Modern Dance.
  • 8. Library and Printing House It produces and distributes on a national level, books of all levels of public education, in the Braille system and in digital and audio form, as well.
  • 9. Computer Science Department and ECDL (CERB Thessaloniki) Computer lessons and preparation for ECDL exam.
  • 10. Department of teaching Braille – Braille Certification Braille is being taught to sighted scientists of different specialization and to other special teaching support staff.
  • 11. Workshop of Special Optical Material. The Workshop of Special Optical Material works in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, in order to facilitate in every possible way, the educational process of visually impaired people.
  • 12. Braille machines repair service. Maintenance and repair of Braille typewriters in a national level covering all the stages of education.
  • 13. Department of Supportive Care. Transport of students to their homes and schools (for Junior High and High School students, Kindergarten and Nursery).
  • 14. Special Kindergarten – Elementary School. There are an Elementary School and a Special Kindergarten for the Blind in Kallithea which are hosted in the CERB and accept children from all over Greece, with partial or total vision loss, aged 4-14 years.
  • 15. Special Elementary School for the Blind-Deaf. There is a Special Elementary School for the Blind-Deaf in Kallithea.

Total number of personnel of the Center -63 .

Number of personnel involved in the project – 7 (In the project will be involved , social worker , daily living skill and mobility instructors, I.T. teacher, greek language teachers and trainers, and administrative staff in Thessaloniki and Athens)

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