According to data gathered by the World Health Organization (WHO), there are currently around 161 million individuals with blindness or severe visual disability. Most live in developing countries without access to education, rehabilitation / employment and do not enjoy the same level of equality of opportunities as non-visually disabled citizens.

Within this context, the ONCE is fully committed to providing the highest possible level of support and social responsibility, a stance that has lead to the Institution having a presence in around thirty international organizations that focus their activities in the social area.

Worldwide on behalf of the disabled in general and of the blind in particular

ONCE has always been one of the members most committed to the creation, development and running of the World Blind Union. Within the European and regional area, ONCE’s stance as a member of the European Blind Union obeys to identical engagement principles. Highly relevant are the social outcomes reached in Europe thanks to the application of public policies in favour of the blind in our continent.

Employment is the most important tool for social integration and equalization. Therefore, ONCE has invested great efforts and resources, with the support of the involvement and commitment of the public and private sectors and institutions, to ensure that the right to work becomes a real possibility for our sector in order to prevent social exclusion. However, even though the ONCE has achieved major results in Spain and Europe, there is still a large number of international cooperation projects currently under way in developing countries that are still far from reaching satisfactory results in the area of job creation.

Likewise, ONCE contributed to the creation and later development of the, a region of the world that holds close ties with Spain due to historical, language and cultural reasons.

Ampliar

The ONCE’s Latin America Cooperation Fund was created in 1985 to ensure control and regulation of aid and subsidies, mostly pertaining to the area of social services.

In 1998, thanks to the creation of FOAL (ONCE Foundation for Latin America), this collaboration scheme developed into a systematized and structured cooperation strategy focused on fostering training and job creation for the benefit of Latin America’s almost five million blind and visually disabled individuals.

Highly significant is also ONCE’s participation in and support to the leading organizations working on behalf of the disabled in general. Fuelled by geographical proximity and sharing common interests, the work carried out by our institution’s agents at the European Disability Forum deserves special mention for its intensity.

International education area

ONCE has participated in international schemes created with the aim of ensuring the right to education to all blind children living in developing countries, where most of whom are barred access to even the most basic education. ONCE is a member of the International Council for Education of the Visually Disabled, and has led the international campaign “Education For All”, which was directly supported and sponsored by UNICEF and UNESCO.

International job creation area

Employment is the most important tool for social integration and equalization. Therefore, ONCE has invested great efforts and resources, with the support of the involvement and commitment of the public and private sectors and institutions, to ensure that the right to work becomes a real possibility for our sector in order to prevent social exclusion. However, even though the ONCE has achieved major results in Spain and Europe, there is still a large number of international cooperation projects currently under way in developing countries that are still far from reaching satisfactory results in the area of job creation.