July 2004, here we are again in Belgium, in Louvain-la-Neuve, for this summer camp. This is a three weeks' meeting on the theme "BODY: "Belgium Opens Doors to the visually impaired Youth".

Three multi-cultural, enriching and dynamic weeks,.. only positive points with nevertheless some slight dose of stress. And yet, how eager we are to start it all again !

We collaborated with 9 organisations from 7 different countries (list of our partners in 2004). All in all, 25 young people could participate in this meeting. In the group, there were thirteen blind, eight partially-sighted and four fully-sighted people, aged between 17 and 30.

For those 3 weeks, the young Europeans could share their experiences through various athletic, cultural, crafts, gastronomic, musical and cultural activities, which were related to the theme, "the body" and the presentation of the young's own countries. Such activities, which proved to be all of real interest, were practised in view of a maximum autonomy, which made it necessary to set up mobility and daily living skills activities. In this way, the young participants could:

• discover and go all over the city of Louvain-la-Neuve,
• walk along the streets of Brussels,
• visit museums,
• do tandemming,
• play the pétanque (South of France game played with metal balls),
• listen to some advice from a beautician,
• be shown how to recognize the euro coins and banknotes (for those who needed it),
• relax through the practice of shiatsu,
• get to know cultures and habits that are different from theirs, etc

All along this summer meeting, the aims of autonomy and independence were the guidelines for our decisions regarding the facilities of the site (the pedestrian infrastructure of the town), moving, accommodation, upkeeping and food. Everything was organised so as to allow the young the maximum self-management, bearing in mind that, for several of them, this was their first trip "on their own".

All this - added to the richness of human relationships - affords us to assert that we succeeded in reaching our main aim: the integration of young visually impaired among sighted people of their age !

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This page belongs to all who participated in this session. If you were one of them and wish to add a comment, a picture, don't hesitate to contact us.

If you wish to participate in one of our upcoming session, as a young trainee or as a partner, please follow the link: "Interested in participating in one of VIEWS next activities?

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