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A ceremonial academy for 70 years of Zagreb Association of Blind Persons

On the occasion of marking the 70th anniversary of the Zagreb Association of Blind was held a press conference by Mr. Josip Hrvoj, President of the Association, Romana Galić, head of the City Office for Social Protection and Disabled Persons, and Mr. Goran Denis Tomašković, Executive Director of the Zagreb Association of Blind Persons.

After the press conference followed a solemn academy at the Vidra Theater in Zagreb. In addition to the music venues of the Volakni ensemble of the blind VAUS association, Petra Marković performed on the flute, Josip Hrvoj on piano and Predrag Krajnović on guitar.
 
Attending the ceremony was the only living founder of the association Mr. Proko Vujičić who was awarded the plaque "Milan Berkeš". This special acknowledgment was given to the mayor of Zagreb, Mr. Milan Bandić, in whose name take it Mrs. Pavičić Vukičević. The title of Honorary Members of the Association was also received by Deputy Mayor Jelena Pavičić Vukičević, Special Advisor to Mayor Višnja Fortuna, Assistant to the Head of the City Office for Social Protection and Disability Zagreb City Marinka Bakula-Anđelić, and volunteers graphic designer Monika Rastovac and Director of Apriori World Danijel Koletić. The ceremony was about 300 guests.
 
The Zagreb Association of Blind Persons was founded on 28th September 1947. They set up blind students and intellectuals to organize and take care of the problems of blind people at the time: education, employment, housing and social and cultural life. Today, the association has 1190 members (957 from the City of Zagreb and 233 from the Zagreb County). The Association provides members with psychosocial counseling and information on exercising rights, advocating for their rights, realizing rehabilitation courses and workshops, organizing free time, providing assistance services to personal assistants and a video tutor. These services are provided through a dozen projects at the year level. Currently, the largest project of the association is "Personal Assistant in the Community", funded by the European Social Fund. Since 2015, the association has developed a socio-entrepreneurial project called "Soaps with dots" which was launched in cooperation with the social partner Martinov plašt and the Apriori World agency and thanks to the project and donation funds, the first phase of the opening of the blind and blind work was completed. The second phase of this project will begin on October 1, in which plant modernization and new employment are planned with project funding support, as well as donations without which the project can not be implemented. The first funding for this project was provided by the City Office for Economy, Labor and Entrepreneurship of the City of Zagreb through the competition for the development of social entrepreneurship.
 
Anyone who wants to help the Blind Zagreb Association can do so by purchasing soap via the web site www.sapunistockicama.com