Saint Lucia Blind Welfare Association (SLBWA) achieves record-breaking status
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Contact: Adhara King
Friday, March 13, 2009 – The Saint Lucia Blind Welfare Association (SLBWA) has achieved a record-breaking status for the English speaking Caribbean in a United Nations sponsored contest.
The Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) commissions an “Experiences in Social Innovation” contest every year and Executive Director of the Saint Lucia Blind Welfare Association, Anthony Avril, said Saint Lucia made it to the final round of the 2007-2008 cycle of the competition.
“The project we submitted is called “The Empowerment of Blind and Visually Impaired Youth” and in that is embodied everything that we do with regard to blind youth. From education, their eye health, the attempt to help with income generating activities, employment, with dealing with the various social problems, sporting activities—their holistic development.”
Over the last five years of the staging of the contest, approximately five thousand projects have been submitted.
The project by the SLBWA, was one of over nine hundred in the most recent cycle of competition.
“Having made it even to the semi finals provides a great degree of exposure. And of course going through to the finals and being one of the top six means that our efforts have achieved international recognition. While there was no money—we did not receive any large award—achieving achieving the recognition is a wonderful stimulus which we hope will help to open doors,” said Avril.
The ECLAC contest seeks to identify innovative social development programmes throughout the Caribbean and Latin America and to disseminate them, so as to contribute to improved practices and policies for vulnerable populations. |
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