{"id":255,"date":"2013-02-01T05:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T05:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/eyecarecaribbean\/2013\/02\/01\/jamaica-society-for-the-blind-jsb-2\/"},"modified":"2013-02-01T05:11:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T05:11:00","slug":"jamaica-society-for-the-blind-jsb-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/our-member-in-jamaica\/jamaica-society-for-the-blind-jsb-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamaica Society for the Blind (JSB)"},"content":{"rendered":"

PREVALENCE OF BLINDNESS AND VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AMONG ADULTS AND CHILDREN IN JAMAICA<\/span><\/strong> <\/p>\n

\u2022 Estimated number of adults who are functionally blind (1% of the total population i.e. 1% of 2,709,291) = 27,093<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 Estimated number of adults with low vision (3% of total population, i.e. 3% of 2,709,291) = 81,279<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 Estimated number of children who are functionally blind (1 in every thousand children of school age) = 863<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 Estimated number of children with low vision (3 in every thousand children of school age) = 2,589<\/span> <\/p>\n

History of Jamaica Society for the Blind<\/span><\/strong> <\/p>\n

The Jamaica Society for the Blind (JSB) was incorporated on May 17<\/span>th<\/span>, 1954. It was <\/span>established with the support of the Royal <\/span>Commonwealth Society for the Blind (now <\/span>Sightsavers) in response to a petition made to <\/span>the Queen of England with respect to the <\/span>conditions affecting persons who were blind in <\/span>Jamaica (at that time). The JSB is an <\/span>Organisational Member of the Caribbean <\/span>Council for the Blind (CCB).<\/span> <\/p>\n

Mission and Vision<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Initially, the mission of the JSB primarily involved organizing and maintaining a record <\/span>of all persons who were blind or visually <\/span>impaired with the help of the Salvation Army. <\/span>However, as the membership grew, the Board <\/span>became engaged in a range of fundraising <\/span>activities in an effort to augment the <\/span>subvention which was received from the <\/span>Government. The Society also increased the <\/span>number of programmes for the benefit of its <\/span>membership.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Milestones<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\u2022 1954 – Incorporation of Jamaica Society for the Blind<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 1965 – Formation of the Adult Blind Club<\/p>\n

\u2022 1979 – Appointment of the first Chairman who was blind (Derrick Palmer)<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 1980 \u2013 Acquisition of current premises<\/p>\n

\u2022 1981 \u2013 Appointment of first Executive Director who was blind (Arvel Grant);<\/p>\n

\u2022 1982 \u2013 Introduction of Weekly Radio Broadcast \u201cAWARENESS\u201d on the Jamaica Broadcasting <\/span>Corporation (JBC)<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 1984 – Introduction of Library Services<\/p>\n

\u2022 1984 \u2013 Inauguration of JSB\u2019s Eye Clinic<\/p>\n

\u2022 1985 – Introduction of Adjustment to Blindness Services; first JSB Fundraising and Public <\/span>Education Mediathon<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 1995 \u2013 Availability of School Textbooks in Braille and Large Print through the Ministry of Education<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 1999 \u2013 Former client appointed Senator and Junior Minister of Government;<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 2000 – Introduction of training in Information Technology for students who are blind<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u2022 2004 \u2013 Observance of JSB\u2019s 50th <\/span>Anniversary of incorporation<\/span> <\/p>\n

MISSION STATEMENT<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\u201cTo promote the welfare, education and employment of persons who are blind or<\/p>\n

visually impaired and to prevent (avoidable) blindness in Jamaica.\u201d<\/p>\n

PROGRAMMES\/SERVICES OFFERED<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\u2022 Eye Health\/Prevention of Blindness<\/p>\n

\u2022 Adjustment to Blindness Services<\/p>\n

\u2022 Library\/Education Support Services<\/p>\n

\u2022 Information Technology Training<\/p>\n

\u2022 Early Intervention Programme<\/p>\n

Main Activities undertaken (on a monthly\/yearly basis)<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\u2022 Training of Primary Health Care (PHC) Workers<\/p>\n

\u2022 Vision Screening<\/p>\n

\u2022 Computer Training<\/p>\n

\u2022 Client Counseling<\/p>\n

\u2022 Resource Mobilisation<\/p>\n

\u2022 Advocacy (on behalf of clients)<\/p>\n

Staff Complement <\/span>: Currently there is a staff complement of six persons<\/p>\n

Head or Organisation Contact Person: Lola Marson – Executive <\/span>Director<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Jamaica Society for the Blind (JSB)<\/a> by eyecarecaribbean<\/a> \t<\/p>\n

\t<\/object> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PREVALENCE OF BLINDNESS AND VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AMONG ADULTS AND CHILDREN IN JAMAICA \u2022 Estimated number of adults who are functionally blind (1% of the total population i.e. 1% of 2,709,291) = 27,093 \u2022 Estimated number of adults with low vision (3% of total population, i.e. 3% of 2,709,291) = 81,279 \u2022 Estimated number of children who are functionally blind (1 in every thousand children of school age) = 863 \u2022 Estimated number of children with low vision (3 in every thousand children of school age) = 2,589 History of Jamaica Society for the Blind The Jamaica Society for the Blind (JSB) was incorporated on May 17th, 1954. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-member-in-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}