ICYE STEPS / CAIPAC 2017

he 'Centro Artesanal e Industrial para Ciegos CAIPAC (Handmade and Industrial Center for Blinds)' is a boarding school that hosts blind youths providing them a rehabilitation and qualification so they can be independent persons. CAIPAC's vision is to eliminate mendicancy and mediocrity to which are object the non-sighted persons from behalf of their relatives and persons that profit from their disability. CAIPAC's objectives are to give the blind and the visual deficient a basic functional and professional rehabilitation that integrates him/her in such a way that the blind person that comes to the center in search of help by passing through a qualification process can be integrated to his/her community of origin or to a competitive labor spot in equality of conditions and rights. Main Activities CAIPAC's activities are based on a quality service in two stages: 1. Initial Stage: bad habits are fought, i.e. vices, blindness, etc. that the non-sighted student may have. 2. Second Stage: the blind person and his/her family really get to know that the blind person is a human being and not an object to whom only living but not existing is allowed. The rehabilitations are classified this way: Basic Rehabilitation: this rehabilitation stage consists of the following programs: Daily-Life Activities, Orientation and Mobility, Lecture-Writing of Braille. Professional Rehabilitation: this rehabilitation stage has the objective of developing manual dexterities, to develop the blind person's hands, which are very important in their lives. In this area they make various objects and services in different workshops: - Carpentry Workshop: the students manage electrical and manual tools elaborating all kinds of useful household objects, such as doors, tables, chairs, windows, etc. - Pottery Workshop: the students learn to differentiate the various kinds of dirt to know which ones are rich in clay, to prepare the clay and then to elaborate simple and complicated made-hand pieces of clay in plaster molds. - Massage-Therapy Workshop: the students learn first to get to know the human body, muscles, bones, nerves, etc. They learn all the parts where they can give relaxing, therapeutically, etc. massages. Due to the tactile sensibility that the blind persons develop, the massages they give are world-wide considered as the best ones. - Music Workshop: the students interpret all kinds of cord and percussion instruments. Nowadays, it has been possible to form a musical group which is very popular among the society; they are hired for various events. CAIPAC also has three programs: - Computer Program: equipped with seven computers with the special voice program 'JAWS', which by the use of a micro-headphone it permits the blind to listen each key of the keypad that they press and concreting the words and phrases that they write. This program has helped to the scholar integration to the 'normal' schools because the students with the help of a voice recorder or a person that dictates the Braille texts write their homework in the computer and present them like any other 'normal' student. - Sports Program: the students are trained to participate in marathons. Two times a week they receive a sport class to train their mobility. - Recreational Program: the students make hikes to nearby spots once a week. Volunteer tasks The volunteer participates in different tasks (especially in the tasks of the preference and/or knowledge of the volunteer and the center's necessities at that time). The volunteer can get involved in any of the workshops and/or programs. The volunteers that have worked previously in the center have made office work and also own projects (for example giving English classes, build blogpages, etc). Project available for January 2012.