Tag: visually impaired

Belgium EVS: October 2017

On By elinIn Living abroad2 Comments

So, I moved to Belgium…

I still can’t really believe it. This morning I experienced a surreal moment when walking to work, chatting to a local I met on the bus, when I just wanted to laugh so much at how bizarre this all is! I’ve been here a month already and it still hasn’t sunk in yet.
I’m here for nine months taking part in the European Voluntary Service programme. It means that I get my accommodation for free and some pocket money for food and living costs, in exchange for volunteering for a set number of hours per week. In particular, I’m taking part in the EVS programme that is specifically adapted for visually impaired people, which basically involves having mobility and accessible French lessons included in my programme. In other words, it’s a dream come true!
I had a lot of questions before coming here that included everything from whether there was a convenient place to toilet Jazzy near my apartment, to whether my mental health would be able to cope with moving to a different country on my own where they speak a different language. The answer to both those questions is yes; I thankfully don’t have to walk a mile in the rain before she can have a wee, and so far, I’m feeling better than I expected.
It’s been an adjustment for sure. My one-to-one French lessons were initially incredibly difficult because neither I or my teacher were clear on the most effective and most accessible way of teaching me. Seeing as I managed a very impressive D in my French GCSE, I definitely needed a lot of teaching. Thankfully I think we’ve now found the perfect combination of recording vocabulary and using online exercises to practice grammar which means that my French is coming along slowly but surely. I’ve also started attending adult learning classes twice a week for French, which helps reinforce what I’m learning and is also a great way to meet people. My grasp of the language has now progressed enough that I can ask someone what number bus is approaching and ask the driver to let me know when we get to my stop; two very important questions!
I’m quietly confident in my mobility skills and Jazzy’s ability to pick up routes, so that at least wasn’t a huge concern before I got here. I needn’t have worried either because we’re picking it up really well, helped I think by the fact that we both seem to enjoy finding our way around new places. Jazzy is prone to making a few more blips than usual, but it’s not something I’m concerned about at the moment. I’m also hoping to make contact with the local guide dog centre soon which will hopefully be good for advice about Jazzy but also meeting new people.

In terms of my living situation, I’m sharing an apartment with two others adapted EVS volunteers, one from France and the other from Sicily. There is something of an age gap between us, both of them being twenty-nine, but I’m glad to say that we get on well and we live in pretty companionable harmony. It’s nice to have other people who are completely new to Belgium as well and it’s a real asset for me to have a native French speaker correcting my pronunciation. I still giggle when I think about our first night in the apartment; we were investigating what goodies the previous occupants had left behind, including ridiculous quantities of rice and pasta, when we found something like a year’s supply of sanitary towels and tampons. Exchanging the English, French and Italian names for feminine hygiene products was definitely a novel way of breaking the ice!

 

I’ve started one of two volunteering projects so far. I’m managing the communication for a charity that supports visually impaired people both locally and internationally. My tasks include writing content for their website, social media and newsletters, as well as supporting them with any awareness raising sessions or events. During my second week of work I was asked to observe an awareness raising session where my colleagues would explain a little about visual impairment, different mobility aids and sighted guiding. I wanted to contribute so I decided to prepare some information in French about owning a guide dog. Thankfully I presented the information clearly enough that everyone understood my meaning. It was definitely a good achievement!
One of my neighbours approached me soon after I arrived to ask if I’d be interested in holding English conversation sessions every week. I agreed, if somewhat nervously, because I’ll give anything a go once but I really have no teaching experience and have even gone so far as to promise that teaching is the one thing I’d never do in the past. Never the less I turned up last week after watching some ‘teaching English conversation’ YouTube tutorials hoping for the best, and proceeded to spend the hour explaining Frank Sinatra’s song ‘My Way’. It was surreal, bizarre and brilliant. It turns out that one member of the group really enjoys singing in English but often has no idea what he’s singing about, so for the first few sessions it seems we’ll be translating some of his favourite tunes.
Other highlights of my first month have included meeting other EVS volunteers placed all over Belgium during a national EVS training event, attending the annual lights festival in Liege that saw the city centre come to life with candles, lanterns and fairy lights, and of course sampling (too much) local beer, chocolate and cheese. It seems to be a vibrant place with events happening every week; last week I went with a neighbour to an autumn celebration at a local cultural centre. The city hall type building was decorated with an array of autumnal decorations and hosted activities including Tango dancing, aromatherapy and mindfulness that you could pick and choose as you wished. There is also a large fair happening in the town in the moment which is present until the end of November, when the largest Christmas market in Europe will take over.
My overall impression is that locals are extremely friendly and helpful, very happy to go out of their way to help if they can. I think this is reflected best by the fact that everyone around me available to support me are doing so as volunteers, including my French and mobility instructors who have practically seen more of me than their own families during the last few weeks. My neighbours are also extremely welcoming, as well as my colleagues and fellow students at the French lessons.
I’ve found that the times when I feel the most homesick or unhappy are when I’m cooped up in my room, bored. Admittedly this hasn’t happened much during this first busy month, but I’m making a conscious effort to push myself out of my comfort zone as much as possible to meet new people and get involved with lots of different things. I would like to find something active to do locally, whether that be going to the gym or joining a local group, and I would also like to do all the touristy stuff in my city. I’m also hoping to do some travelling while I’m here, making the most of the connections to neighbouring countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands, but it’s probably best I get to grips with where I live now first!
On the whole, this first month has been exciting, challenging and very rewarding. By the end of November, I hope to have progressed in French, I hope to have integrated into the local community a bit more by expanding my social network, and I hope to be more physically active. Oh, and visiting the local chocolate factory is top on the list too!

Change100 – Half Way Through!

On By elinIn employment, life3 Comments

Two years ago, I was having lunch with a friend in a small café in Voxel and practically turning green with envy. Why? Because she was telling me all about what it was like living and working in central London.
London has always been the dream. That and NYC are at the top of my bucket list of places I want to live in one day, so to be sitting across one of my friends who was living out that dream right then, I could think of nothing cooler. I remember spending the whole journey on my way to see her fantasising about the amazing stories she would tell me about all the places she had been, the people she had met and the things she had done. I don’t think she realised at the time how very inspired I was. So much so that I even wrote down the name of the internship programme that she’d gotten this opportunity through in my phone.

Fast-forward to last week when I met up with the same friend, again in central London, only this time I was the intern. After writing that note in my phone that day in Voxel, I applied for the Change100 Programme earlier this year and was accepted onto the scheme. This is how I came to be working in central London months after I graduated – a dream come true.

Change100

The Change100 Programme is an internship scheme for disabled students and graduates. Their aim is to change the employment landscape for students and graduates with disabilities or long-term health conditions, by offering them paid work experience tailored for their interests and needs. The scheme is run by Leonard Cheshire Disability, a UK charity supporting disabled people in the UK and around the world to fulfil their potential and live the lives they choose. The programme runs for a total of six months, including a three-month internship and three months afterwards when you will receive ongoing support and mentoring.

The application process is designed to give applicants as much experience as possible, while also giving the support and guidance needed for applicants with disabilities. You are required to submit an application, much like a job application, which if accepted will mean that you are invited to an assessment centre. At an assessment day, you are asked to give a short pre-prepared presentation, take part in a group problem solving activity and attend a formal interview. If you are successful at the assessment centre you are accepted onto the programme, which is when the Change100 team will proceed to try to find you the perfect work placement.
They try to match up your skills, interests and preferences with a bank of internship placements available that have already been submitted to them by employers all over the country. When they think they’ve found you the right fit, they offer the employers to chance to choose an applicant from the programme. This is when you are then told that you’ve been selected by an employer and are given the details of your internship. Its then up to you to negotiate with your employer things like start dates and any adjustments you might want to ask for before starting your placement. The Change100 team also present a disability awareness briefing to your employer, if you are happy for them to do so.
As part of the programme you are given a contact within the Change100 team which you can turn to for any support or advice you might need during your internship, and you’re also invited to attend peer development days once a month which include workshops on topics like managing your disability in the workplace. You are also assigned a mentor within your employer organisation who is there to be your point of contact within the workplace during your placement, as well as providing ongoing support after your placement has finished.

My experience

For the last few weeks, I have been interning at a charitable organisation based in central London working within their conference and programmes team as an assistant. My role is to support the team in organising and running their biggest event of the year, their annual three-day conference. I have been having the best time! My colleagues within the team and the wider organisation have been incredibly welcoming and respectful and I feel like I am getting really valuable experience, I could not have asked for a better placement.

I found the Change100 recruitment process largely positive, only encountering a couple of accessibility issues that the team were happy to work with me to resolve. It’s been such a valuable opportunity for me to practice interview skills and attending an assessment centre, as well as the actual experience of being in a workplace. I am glad I took the chance to push myself out of my comfort zone, completely relocating for the internship and joining an organisation that I knew almost nothing about before I started. I am also working in a field that I had no previous experience in, so that has been a learning curve and interesting as well. The whole programme has been challenging but massively rewarding so far and I am only half way through!

I have found the peer development days really beneficial in terms of receiving support during the internship, as well as getting the chance to meet the other interns on the programme. It just so happens that I found a fellow intern who is doing her placement within an organisation two buildings away from me, so we now meet up for lunch every week to catch up and chat through how our respective placements are going.
I am also benefiting a lot from the mentoring aspect of the programme. Change100 recommend your mentor be someone who is not a directly a member of your team, so that you can have a point of contact within the organisation but who is separate from your immediate day-to-day. Your mentor will also continue supporting you after you’ve finished your placement, doing things like providing career advice or contacts that might be useful for you to get where you want to be. I’m personally finding it really helpful having someone at work who I know I can turn to with questions, but who isn’t a part of my actual team, and I’m also learning a lot from my mentor about how to achieve my personal ambitions and goals when it comes to work.

I would absolutely recommend the Change100 Programme to any students and graduates with disabilities. We all know how difficult it is to find employment these days, without the added barrio of having a disability to content with as well. So any work experience you can get to demonstrate your skills is going to be hugely beneficial, because it will be something you can refer back to in future applications and interviews to demonstrate to prospective employers your capabilities and strengths. That’s what I’m hoping anyway!

I will be writing future posts on my experience applying for Access to Work, the government funded scheme intended to support disabled people in employment, and look out for a Dog Blog coming up all about Jazzy’s perspective getting to grips with our commute.

Cyprus with Seable and VICTA

On By elinIn Disability, life, travel3 Comments

I was recently lucky enough to spend the week in Cyprus on a trip organised by VICTA Children and Seable Holidays. Along with nine other visually impaired people and four sighted guides, I spent a week making the most of everything Cyprus has to offer; from sun bathing to pottery making we did it all!

The trip

Though it could appear daunting to go on holiday with a group of people you may never have even met before, I can say from personal experience that VICTA and Seable are so welcoming and friendly that the atmosphere of their trips are great from the get go. The ethos of VICTA trips is to encourage as much independence as possible, so while sighted volunteers are on hand to guide where needed, they also encourage us to help ourselves and each other as much as possible.

Upon arriving in sunny Cyprus after a stress free flight, we made our way to the hotel and spent the rest of that day orienting ourselves around the building, our rooms and most importantly the pool, before having dinner at a local restaurant.

Our first full day in Cyprus was our chance to try some arts and crafts. We visited a local centre where we learned from local artists all about glass making, tapestry, mosaics and much more. We also were able to try our hands at a bit of pottery and magnet making ourselves. Personally, the pottery instructor told me that he’d never met anybody as terrible at pottery as me, so I won’t be taking up that career any time soon but I’m glad to say that others in the group had better luck. We finished off the day with an afternoon on the beach and more wonderful food.

The next day was all about Paphos, as we explored the archaeological park in the morning and roamed the harber in the afternoon. This was personally one of my favourite days of the trip as I was just blown away learning about the history of the ancient ruins and local mythology. The House of Dionysus, one of the ruins we visited, was extremely accessible having braille information and small scale tactile representations of the mosaics. That evening myself and a few others decided to sample the local delicacy of maze, which consists of lots of small dishes being brought out to share among the table. The food was stunning, though I think we were all more than full by the end. I believe we got up to ten courses all in all!

The following morning we waved goodbye to Paphos and made our way to Troodos where we’d spend the rest of the week,not forgetting to stop for a wine tasting on the way. The afternoon was spent hiking on Troodos mountain lead by a local guide. The weather was fantastic and the nature beautiful, the views weren’t half bad either so I’m told 😉

For our last full day in Cyprus we visited a local botanical garden, a sweets factory and rose factory. The botanical gardens were again beautiful, full of all sorts of fantastic wildlife. The sweets shop was a sweet-tooths heaven; jams, marmalades and sweets of all kind, all home made and made from local produce. And of course the rose factory was fascinating. Not only did it smell beautiful, but the owner who came to speak with us about her business was obviously very knowledgable and passionate about her work and was extremely accommodating in letting us feel and sample all of the different products they produce. I just couldn’t resist spending my remaining euros in their gift shop and I got some lovely suvineers.

All in all it was a very relaxed trip, full of fun and laughter. I can definitely say that I’ve come away from the week with great memories and really good friends. I would absolutely recommend VICTA and Seable to anyone for their services, information about which I’ll post below.

Who are VICTA and Seable?

VICTA (Visually Impaired Children Taking Action) are a national charity serving visually impaired children and young adults and their families. They organise residential weekends and international trips throughout the year that are intended to raise the independence and confidence of young VI people. I’ve been attending VICTA events since I was around 15 and have made countless friends and made fantastic memories through the experiences I’ve had with them. They plan activities for a range of age-groups, from family weekends for young children and their families to international trips for 18 to 30 years old like the one I attended to Cyprus. Check out their website for more information: http://www.victa.org.uk

Seable is an award winning social enterprise organising accessible and active holidays for individuals, couples, families and small groups. They can arrange trips to a number of locations including Sicily, Slovenia and Roam and will taylor your holiday to your spesific access needs. They are an invaluable service for those of us who have disabilities but who also want to see the world by going on fun, interactive and relaxed trips where your disability won’t stopd you from doing anything. So far I’ve attended two Seable trips including the recent one to Cyprus, but fully intend to go on many more and would recommend anyone who likes to travel and who has a disability to consider them before booking your next holiday because I promise you won’t regret it. Click on the link below to check out their website: http://www.seable.co.uk