Empowering who sees less; through intercultural exchange & new communication technologies is a youth exchange set up by a group of young volunteers (ICC Belgium) part of the association KVG. You can find us in Leuven, Belgium from the 23rd of July to the 1 of August 2017. We will gather 60 young visually impaired people (aged 16-30) from 9 EU countries.
With this exchange we want to:
1. Increase the self-esteem of visually impaired participants (VIP)
2. Increase their autonomy
3. Increase and facilitate their integration

To achieve these objectives the young VIP’s will prepare workshops or outdoor activities like: learn to use applications to get around in the city, use social media, learn how to speak in front of the public when you see very little or nothing at all, discover different adapted sports etc. We let the young people prepare all the activities so they will choose the methodology: brainstorming, debates and workshops will be mostly used, but learning from each other too.

At the end of the youth exchange the young VIP’s will have created a blog where they can share their experiences and what they have learned. They will also make a podcasts and a radio programme to show the atmosphere of the event and to collect participants’ experiences. A newspaper of the youth exchange will allow their friends and many other people to see what they have achieved and learned. The Open door day planned for the public will give citizens from Leuven and Belgium the opportunity to see the results of the project and experience for a moment what it is to be blind or partially sighted.

At a long term the YE opens doors for our young participants to become more independent. They will dare more to learn from their peers who dare already. The acquired knowledge will be used in their daily life and studies, making them active European citizens. At the end of the exchange, the brainstorm with students from KU Leuven on the missing tools or non-covered areas will give research ideas for the students to create something to increase the participation of blind or partially sighted people in our society.