It happens to all of us, once you have moved from the old
house to the new one, to experience mixed feelings of excitement and
anxiousness when the new reality sets in, whether it is the bedroom layout
or the quality and quantity of the neighbourhood's shops. For most of us,
it can be a stressful situation which we try to experience as little as
possible in our own life.
There are others, instead, when finding
themselves in an unfamiliar situation and away from life's certainties,
who embrace the situation for what it is: an educational experience. This
is what happened to a group of young blind kids who were able to measure
up to a new environment in relation to their disability and increase their
ability to adapt to it. The project called "A Week in the City", promoted
and put together by Dr. Vito Lapietra and his colleague Lucia Iuvone, took
place at the Institute for the Blind Francesco Cavazza and aimed at
inviting a group of young blind people, some of them supervised by the
Region's educational counselling service, between the ages of 13 and 18
and living in Emilia-Romagna, to spend five full days within (and outside)
the old walls of the Institute on via Castiglione. The
experience took place from July 5th to the 10th, 2010. The eleven guests
experienced a rather intense week with lots of activities and very little
time to rest. In the morning, after a breakfast in the nearest café, where
the kids went without the help of a guide, and
after an adequate illustration of the environment with a raised-line
topographical map, the group spent their whole time out in the open in
tandem excursions and at the public pool, and
underground as well along the itinerary of Bologna's Roman
aqueduct.
In the afternoon, time was spent at
the Istituto Cavazza, in the lab doing origami to foster manual dexterity,
using computers for fun, being creative in music rhythmic classes and hard
fought showdown tournaments. There was also a
lot of adventure, one was an expedition to the CUSB gym for wall climbing
and another was for a trekking outing with guides in the Margherita
Gardens.
One of the main goals of these
activities was to promote greater independence in the kids. Simple things
for many, but not for all, like ordering your breakfast and paying for it, figuring out the differences
between coins, dressing alone and choosing your own clothes, all these
things done for the first time by these young guests at Cavazza, thanks to
this innovative initiative carefully planned within an educative scope.
Although funds and time were
limited, the project leaders of "A Week in the City" were able to report
quite positive results among the guests, especially in regards to
socialization and shared experiences, fundamental to promote an emulative
spirit.
The idea is to repeat the experience next year, with the hope
of doubling the length of the stay, allowing kids to really let go and
acquire a sense of security, in order to reach even more satisfying
results.
