Start date: October 1, 2014                          End date:  September, 2019    

Implementer:  South East European University (SEEU) in partnership with the Lions Club International Foundation

The overall objectives of the CwVIP include:  increased quality and availability of education services for students with visual impairments (CwVI), increased availability of social and medical services, mobility, and access to information for visually impaired people and their families and the enhanced work-readiness of participating visually impaired people.

Components

• Early detection and treatment of visual impairments
• Resource Centers and production of reading materials for children with visual impairment
• Support Centers for the blind in two major cities
• Awareness raising for inclusive education

Selected results from the first implementation phase (2014-2016)

• Improve education service to CwV): The project has helped increase the quality of education services for CwVI in the five cities where the resource centers (RCs) have become operational. The special educators have reported that students’ attendance has improved partly due to increased interest among parents of CwV. The students show increased confidence and progress in acquiring knowledge and skills. Additionally, the communication among parents, pupils and the resource centers’ staff has become more frequent and open.
• Increase in the amount of reading materials: The resource centers are being gradually enriched with reading materials in Braille (textbooks and complementary readings).  The conversion of all primary school textbooks into Macedonian Braille is to be complete by April 2017.  Twenty audio books have been recorded and more are in preparation.
• Capacity building and outreach: The project has maintained regular contacts and organized training/consultative sessions with educators, receiving input from blind students and alumni, parents of CwVI, and education authorities in order to: (1) improve the quality of education services and (2) attract more  CwVI  to the resource centers.
• Eye-screenings: The project has seen remarkable achievements in eye-screenings of children aged 3-6.  Nearly 7,000 children have been screened. The demand for eye-screenings remains high and project ophthalmologists continue to actively expand outreach activities.  As a result of the eye-screenings, many children have been referred for further diagnostics and timely treatment.

Contact at USAID: Lela Jakovlevska, AOR, ljakovlevska@usaid.gov

Chief of Party:  Shpetim Latifi, shpetim.latifi@fulbrightmail.org

Project Office Coordinator:  Davor Karakashev, d.karakashev@seeu.edu.mk