CAIPAC - Centro Artesanal e Industrial para Ciegos (HON-24)


Type: Health: Disability - Country: Honduras

Brief description and main aims

CAIPAC - Centro Artesanal e Industrial para Ciegos is a non-profit and non-governmental organisation that offers rehabilitation therapy and vocational training for blind people, aged 18-50, who have suffered exclusion from society and workforce. Blind people live within the centre to undergo a rehabilitation cycle in order to become independent individuals, while learning and developing life skills and a handcraft.

Main Activities

The training programme facilitated in CAIPAC includes different therapies in order to boost self-esteem and empower blind people in order to gain confidence, develop manual dexterities and learn a handcraft in a workshop, helping them to have a source of income to achieve their total independence within society, and encouragement to participate in sports and leisure activities. These therapies, workshops and activities include: Daily Life Activities, Orientation & Mobility, Braille Lessons, Pottery, Carpentry, Music, Computer Lessons, Sports Activities & Recreational Trips, and Massage-therapy.
 
For this latter one, the students learn first to get to know the human body – muscles, bones, nerves, etc., and all the parts where they can give relaxing, therapeutically, massages. Japanese volunteers of the JICA – Japan International Cooperation Agency, have trained the centre in four main specialisations:
  • Massage with oil, using different massage techniques with oil or lotion, commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet, or a device.
  • Reflexology / zone therapy, an alternative medicine involving application of pressure to specific points and areas on the feet, hands or ears, with specific thumb, finger, and hand techniques without the use of oil or lotion.
  • Shiatsu, a form of Japanese bodywork based on ideas in traditional Chinese medicine, making it a type of alternative medicine consisting of the fingers and palm pressure, stretches, and other massage techniques.
  • Amma, a specialised form of bodywork therapy that combines deep, therapeutic, circular digital pressure and acupressure point stimulation with Chinese medical principles for accessing and treating imbalances in the energy system.

Volunteer tasks

The volunteer can support in any of the therapies, workshops, lessons and activities facilitated in the centre, such as:

  • Helping the therapists in the different sessions, for example teaching residents how to do daily life activities such as household chores, and how to move around such as getting oriented with one’s surroundings and eventually using public transport.
  • The volunteer can learn the Braille system while supporting the Braille teacher in the daily classes.
  • He/she can assist the instructors in the vocational training workshops on pottery, massage-therapy, carpentry, and music, as well as the computer lessons, sports activities and organising and facilitating the recreational trips.
The volunteer can also help in the maintenance of the centre’s facilities, and also organise extracurricular activities, such as teaching a foreign language, as well as helping with the centre’s social media accounts in order to show their work.

Volunteer requirements / Skills

The volunteer should:
  • be at least 18 years old
  • have basic knowledge of Spanish
  • be interested and motivated to work with blind persons
  • be proactive, patient and creative
It is preferable, but not necessary, if the volunteer has skills on pottery, massage-therapy, carpentry and/or music.

Location

The project is located in Santa Lucía, Francisco Morazán.

Hosting Situation (Board and Lodging)

The volunteer will live with a host family or within the project.

More Information

The project is available to start in February every year for 6-12 months.
The project is available for 6-12 month placements within the ‘Inclusive Voluntary Services’ Project coordinated by Grenzenlos / ICYE Austria.
 
Social media:
  • Facebook Page: @CaipacHonduras
You can request more information of this Project contacting ICYE Honduras: incoming@icye.hn

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