North Estonian Blind Association- Equipping a study kitchen for the blind

Renovation of the kitchen in the Activity Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired

We are collecting a donation for the renovation of the study kitchen. People who have lost their sight will learn to prepare food in order to improve their skills for daily independent living.

This kitchen project and workshops are especially important for people who have recently lost their sight.

Imagine if you close your eyes and have to carry on in your kitchen. Doing very simple things can also be a challenge. For example how to use a knife and kitchen equipment safely, how to pour a cup of hot drink, make a sandwich, and measure the right amount of flour?

We want to teach such simple tricks for working in the kitchen and share the experience of other blind people in workshops.

There are specific requirements for kitchen appliances. For example, kitchen machines should have buttons, not touch-sensitive. Touch-sensitive items are very difficult or even impossible for blind people to use, especially if they cannot be connected to a smartphone.

Meet Janne, Helen, Jakob, and many others.

For decades, they and many other active people have stood up for the rights of the blind and partially sighted, equal treatment, and integration into society.

North Estonian Blind Association includes 430 visually impaired people all over Estonia, and we touch on our activities indirectly to thousands of people and their family members because thanks to the employment and rehabilitation opportunities visually impaired people will be actively integrated into the society and arent sitting sadly between home walls.

The North Estonian Blind Association does not receive stable support from the state. We have kept ourselves active by writing projects, involving volunteers, and engaging in social entrepreneurship.

Getting blind can affect a person at very different times in life. The same has happened to our members. Some have been blind since birth or have lost some or all of their sight as a child due to illness or accident at a later age.

The House of The North Estonian Blind Association is like a second home for our members. Here we go to pottery class, yoga, and theatre class. We have a massage Center where blind people offer their service.

We make every effort to ensure that people who do not have equal opportunities can enjoy the opportunities of life and enjoy company in gatherings in the day center.

This year The North Estonian Blind Association is celebrating itś 100. birthday.

The North Estonian Blind Association has had one big dream for years- to renovate our house and develop a social enterprise for the blind and partially sighted. A support system where one building has it all: a rehabilitation, training, and activity center and a long-term protected workplace service

Living on project money means that the organization has no certainty for the future. Whether it will be possible to provide art training or sports training for the blind next year, and whether the state will create protected workplaces for people with disabilities.

The biggest concern is the building of our activity center, the renovation of which requires large expenses.

We have been offered to find a new building, but whoever knows what it means to walk in the city as a blind person, it is a great challenge for a blind person to learn a new route. Moving to a new building can be such a challenge for some people that they will no longer come and will be deprived of all hobbies and support.

Read more about our organization: https://ppy.ee/eng/avaleht/