Awareness raising – Views International

Fête de Quartier Sainte-Marguerite: an afternoon of inclusion and community

Giulia D'Agnolo — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:08:17 +0000

On Saturday 5 July, we were pleased to take part in the Fête de quartier Sainte-Marguerite, an annual neighbourhood event that brings together local residents, families, and associations for a day of activities, music and animation in Liège’s Parc Sainte-Agathe.

Throughout the afternoon, the park was filled with music, performances, and a wide range of family activities. At our stand, we had the opportunity to share information about our work, offer inclusive games adapted for children with and without disabilities, and speak with families and visitors about the importance of participation and equal opportunities for all young people.

It was a real pleasure to meet so many members of the local community and to exchange ideas around inclusion and accessibility in such a friendly and open setting.

A big thank you to everyone who stopped by, and to the organisers, La Baraka ASBL and the Coordination Socioculturelle de Sainte-Marguerite (CSCSM), for inviting us. We look forward to the next edition!

Awareness-raising, and make it fun: Kinga’s experience at the Fête de Quartier Sainte-Marguerite

Giulia D'Agnolo — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 07:59:21 +0000

On Saturday, 7 September, the Sainte-Marguerite neighborhood in Liège came alive with music, dance, and family-friendly entertainment during its annual fair, organized by La Baraka asbl and the Coordination Socio-Culturelle de Sainte-Marguerite.
VIEWS International was also there with a stand, engaging the community through adapted activities, interactive games, and conversations to raise awareness about visual impairment and accessibility. Kinga, one of our ESC volunteers, played an active role in the event and shared her personal experience in a blog, reflecting on her involvement and collaboration with local organisations.

On September 7th, the Fête de Quartier Sainte-Marguerite took place in Saint Agathe Park in Liège. Visitors enjoyed a barbecue, bar, animations, face painting, games, and an open-air cinema screening in the evening.

My involvement in organizing this event began several months earlier, as I, representing Coordination Socio-culturelle de Sainte-Marguerite (CSCSM), attended planning meetings with Alain, where I also represented VIEWS International.

The day was long and intense because I divided my time between the stands of the Groupe d’Action Social et Scolaire (GASS) and VIEWS International. At the GASS stand, along with two educators – Elise and Mariama – we organized a duck fishing game and a fruit blind test. For every six ducks caught, children received a chance to draw a small prize, making it one of the most popular attractions. Understandably so, as it’s hard to ignore the huge blue table with colorful ducks swirling around an artificial island. A big thank you to Patribe and Pierre from La Baraka for helping to set up the stand and finding balance on the park’s famously uneven ground. Anyone familiar with Sainte Agathe Park knows what I mean!

Meanwhile, at the VIEWS stand, along with Patricia, Sara, Or, and Anca, we talked about the organization, shared our volunteering experiences, and led games adapted for people with visual impairments. Participants wore blindfolds, and we even offered a demonstration on how to walk with a white cane.

I love participating in events like this, where I get to step into new roles, such as presenting and promoting the work of organizations whose values I align with. Since I’ve already had experience with setting up the VIEWS stand at another awareness raising events, I felt much more confident and was more at ease while talking to interested people about our activities. Working at the GASS stand and animating activities for children is still new to me, but thanks to a great team, we managed to create one of the most engaging attractions of the event.

It was especially nice to see people I’ve met through my work in Liège visit me at the VIEWS stand, from children drawn in by the games, to teenagers stopping by to say hello, and even adult colleagues from GASS, CSCSM, and other ASBLs who were curious about Views International’s work. I also found some time to visit neighboring stands and collect a few free books.

I believe the greatest strength of this event was that organizations united by their local presence, rather than by the type of work they do, came together in a shared space. This allowed us to reach new audiences, with attendees learning about organizations they may never have encountered before. Plus, the weather was perfect, and the family-friendly atmosphere, typical of this city, kept both organizers and participants in good spirits. We’ll see you next year!

Dinners in the Dark

Giulia D'Agnolo — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 11:27:32 +0000

Dinners in the Dark is an immersive experience that will guide you through a three-course meal in complete darkness.

In this discovery journey, guided by blind and partially sighted service people, you will be able to explore the full potential of your senses, and focus on smell, taste and touch to unlock a new and unexpected way to experience food and its flavours.

But this is also a sharing and awareness experience: you will be you will be able to and get an insight of the daily experience of a person with visual impairments, and share your impressions with the other participants and with the guides, who are available to answer your questions.

More information on the event

Each experience will accommodate 35 people, participants will be guided and served by volunteers with visual impairments.
The price for toast, starter, mains and dessert is 30€ for adults and 20€ for children. We also offer vegetarian options upon request!

What former participants and volunteers had to say about the previous editions

“The dinner was delicious. It was really amazing to taste different dishes in the dark and to try to guess what they were. […] It was a really wonderful evening and I thank the team for their good work, which enabled us to share this wonderful time together.”
– Clementin, a sighted guest

“We stayed at the restaurant until late, chatting about disability and what should be done to foster integration. […] I would like to thank the organizers for giving me the opportunity to meet wonderful people, to get new perspectives and to get involved in such a fruitful evening.”
– Larisa, a Romanian Erasmus student in Brussels

“This experience helped me to really understand visually impaired people’s way of life. […] The atmosphere during the dinner was a surprise for me. People were not at all shy and talked a lot to each other. At a certain point, they even refused to have the light back on!”
– William, a sighted helper from Belgium

Learn more about the event!

For more info about our Dinners in the Dark, check out our stories from some of the previous editions:

Awareness-raising activities with young people

Views Volontaire — Tue, 30 May 2023 10:56:02 +0000

Today, I, Jay, a volunteer working in a ESC project with a group of teenagers, held a workshop to raise awareness about blindness and visual impairment.

This was my first experience organizing such a workshop with a young sighted audience, having previously only worked with adults. The results were surprisingly positive.

The workshop was divided into three distinct activities.

The first revolved around Braille writing, during which I explained the Braille system and the writing method used by the visually impaired. The teenagers had the opportunity to directly experiment, trying to write their names using a Braille typewriter.

The second activity developped a practical demonstration of how to guide a person with visual impairment, highlighting the common mistakes people usually make. This session provided a valuable learning opportunity for the teenagers, helping them understand the daily challenges faced by visually impaired people and how to provide appropriate support.

The third and final activity was dedicated to the leisure and entertainment of visually impaired people. I shared my personal experience, highlighting my love for computer and phone games. I also introduced various board games specifically adapted for visually impaired people. This activity culminated in a shared game session that involved all participants for the last thirty minutes of the workshop.

The teenagers showed great enthusiasm and participation throughout the entire event, much more than in previous activities. Despite the limited time for questions, their interest and curiosity were evident, particularly during the name-writing activity in Braille and the board games.

Moreover, it was significant to note that the activity was not only of interest to the teenagers, but also to the two teachers with whom I work. They showed great interest, reinforcing the importance and value of these awareness-raising workshops.

In conclusion, this experience has shown that while the world of visually impaired people may seem different, it is in fact very similar to everyone else’s. This workshop offered a unique opportunity to break down barriers and promote inclusion and mutual understanding, contributing to a more aware and respectful society.

Jay, 16/05/2023

Awareness-raising activities for social workers

Views Volontaire — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 14:34:50 +0000

Workshop on innovative social work practices took place in the Centre for Continuous Education in Liège where we met with approximately twenty-five students from the Practicing Educators Course. It started with a presentation of roles and responsibilities of Views representatives present at the workshop and it continued with a short presentation of Views International’s history, from its formation to the present day with elements of its objectives, values and way of functioning included. Students participated actively, as they were encouraged to ask questions throughout the entire workshop.

After the presentation of Views, our team started to offer information about the non-formal education (what it is, highlighting its importance, where it is used etc.) slowly connecting this topic with information and opportunities of the Erasmus + Programme and all that it has to offer in terms of trainings and possibilities for it’s users. While answering participants’ questions, we continued with the presentation of the European Solidarity Corps Programme in which we presented our volunteering projects, our volunteers and their work in these projects.

Concluding the presentations on the context in which we work, the workshop moved on to phase two, where participants had the opportunity to experience the world from the perspective of the visually impaired. In this activity, participants were separated into two groups of their choice. The first group had the opportunity to experience the outside world from a blind person’s perspective by participating in a short walk outside the workshop room while blindfolded and using a white cane. The second group decided to stay indoors, experimenting, in mixed teams, with blind-adapted board games provided by Views.
After this activity was completed, Jay – an ESC volunteer and Beatrice – an intern at Views, introduced the participants to the daily life experiences of blind people through three short, non-formal theatre role-plays.

These activities were followed by a Q&A session on the previous activities.

As a result of the information and activities that were presented to them, we believe that future social workers will be better prepared in their field. Awareness-raising sessions to visual impairment is one of our organization’s core missions and we look forward to share with you the results of our next workshops.

Activities with young people in the community

Views Volontaire — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 09:38:30 +0000

For the last two weeks, we – Jay and Mihai – had carried out activities for and with visually impaired young people. These activities were focused on understanding and raising awareness about young people with visual disabilities.

Together with La Baraka AISBL and Jean Boets Highschool, young people had the opportunity to learn how to write in braille using a special device. They learned how to read several letters in braille and how to write their names. Part of the other activities that took place, young people discovered and experienced how to walk with a white cane while blindfolded, all these being done with assistance.

The preparations for the activities were also challenging because some of the participants spoke Arabic and could not speak neither English nor French, but everything was carried out without a problem thanks to technology and with the help of the people who spoke Arabic and helped with the translation.

Jay is also sharing some of her thoughts regarding the activities:

My role at Baraka is to assist the French teacher in teaching language in a more interactive way, through some playful activities. But among the activities I propose there are occasionally also workshops to raise awareness on visual disability. The latest workshop was Monday 19 December 2022. The subject I wanted to talk about to the students of Baraka was Braille, that is, the writing and reading system used by the blind.
The activity was relatively short but very interesting. We started with an energizer to prepare the students for the activity. After a short presentation on Braille and writing instruments, we started to write their names in Braille.
We then played some board games adapted for people with visual disabilities.
All in all I think the guys had fun and really enjoyed the idea. The activities were well-received and the young people learned about visual disabilities in a non-formal way.

For Views International,

Jay and Mihai

More volunteering Opportunities within the European Solidarity Corps for Blind and Partially Sighted Training Course

OfficeViews — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 07:48:38 +0000

By Anna Rita de Bonnis

From 29 November to 5 December we hosted the training course More opportunities for adapted ESC for young VIP in Liège. Participants included Belgium, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and the UK and Slovenia who, due to the pandemic situation, participated online.

The participants stayed at Wégimont castle, a youth centre belonging to Province of Liège. It is a very nice 22 hectares property with a big parc and minigolf and pool areas.

The training was about the European Solidarity Corps Programme (ESC) of the European Commission, programme that allows young people aged 18 to 30 to volunteer abroad. More specifically, the measures available by the programme for young people with fewer opportunities and the measures implemented by our host VIEWS International to host young volunteers blind or partially sighted were presented.

Several activities were carried out to inform about this programme and some former volunteers gave their testimonies, talking about their volunteering period supported by VIEWS.

There were also moments to present their organisations and to develop new project ideas and partnerships.

The 20 kilometers of Brussels on foot

OfficeViews — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:26:42 +0000

BY Candice Octave

During my stay here I got to take part in many activities, among which walks with the Brussels-based association called “Bon pied mais pas bon oeil”. For several years, this association has enabled VIPs and sighted people to enjoy walks around Belgium together. I got to enjoy two walks with them, one of them being the 20 kilometers of Brussels. This yearly event usually involves runners, but was open to walkers and cyclists for the first time this year.

There were seven of us participating on behalf of the association and the atmosphere within our little group was definitely very nice. I also got to enjoy the overall atmosphere with music being played pretty much everywhere and people cheering us on. I had never gotten to visit Brussels before and it was nice to hear what people had to say about each neighborhood we walked through.

As for the 20-kilometer goal being completed, well it was nearly the case. I’m used to walking long distances, but definitely not in such a short amount of time and my body apparently decided not to cooperate until the end, I had to stop after 18 kilometers due to being dizzy. But our effort was definitely rewarded with a nice drink together after the walk, a lovely and cheery end to this fun day.

I thank “Bon pied mais pas bon oeil” for giving me the opportunity to take part in this experience and I’m glad I could challenge myself and enjoy my day with such a nice party. 🙂

“Salon du Volontariat 2020” in Liège

Giulia D'Agnolo — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 07:51:00 +0000

On 6th and 7th of March “Volunteering Fair” took place at RTBF Média Rives in Liege. The 13th edition was organized by Province of Liège (“Le Département des Affaires sociales et de la Santé” and “l’asbl Centre d’Etudes et de Documentation Sociales” ).

The Province of Liège counts more than 3600 different organisations and this event offers the necessary visibility for them to encounter local volunteers in order to support these organizations to achive their objectives.

The event was open by Mrs Katty Firquet, MP, who stressed the importance of volunteering activities for the general wellbeing. Providing time and skills on a regular basis for a cause that you care about might improve your mental abilities and impact positivly on your helth conditions. Moreover, you can include this experience in your CV and thus enrich your chances in finding your dream job.

As for the participation at 2020 edition of Volunteering Fair, we observed that the majority of visitors were young people on the first day and on the second day, more adults were looking for volunteering opportunities. Compared to previous years, this year’s attendance was quite low. The volunteer fair brought 76 organisations. VIEWS International was present; this opportunity allowed us to talk to increase visibility for our association and it’s activities. During the event, there were also parallel event like conferences and activities on subjects like disabled people in sport or awareness raising sessions.

We hope that some of the persons we met will get involved in our activities. We are also full of faith the epidemic of Covid-19 will end in near future and the next edition of Volunteering Fair will bring more people willing to volunteer.

Awareness Raising events

OfficeViews — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 07:20:04 +0000

We have been busy during the Autumn with a number of different awareness raising events in Liege and elsewhere.

The first event was hosted at the VIEWS offices and was a session for new volunteers, to give them more information and a better understanding of visual impairment. The volunteers learned about different types of vision impairments and had the opportunity to hear first-hand accounts from Theo and Elin, two visually impaired VIEWS volunteers. They also had the opportunity to trial using different mobility aids for themselves. The group was put into pares and while one was blindfolded and taught to use a white cane to navigate, the other acted as the sighted guide. It was a successful and enjoyable session, with many of the volunteers stating that they learned a great deal and that they found the session very interesting.

The second was an awareness raising session held at a local retirement home for some of the residents. The manager of the home requested the session to help the residents understand the needs and limitations of some of their peers who are visually impaired. It was the first session that Elin and Elisa, two of our EVS volunteers, helped to run and coordinate. Together with Tamara the girls presented information about different types of visual impairment, shared some of their own personal experiences and lead the group in an activity where the residents were asked to try to make a cup of coffee while blindfolded. This activity highlighted some of the difficulties that visually impaired people might have to accomplish simple daily tasks, and made the residents more sympathetic toward their fellow residents who might have limited vision.

The third events VIEWS participated in was the Extraordinary Film Festival held in Namur. This festival presents artistic work created within the theme of disability and prides itself on being an entirely accessible film festival, including audio description for blind people, sign language for hard of hearing persons and wheelchair accessible venues. Tamara and Elin travelled to Namur on Friday 10th November to present awareness raising activities about visual impairment for the audience at the film festival. During breaks between the films, the audience had the opportunity to visit Elin and Tamara’s table to learn more about VIEWS and about visual impairment through activities such as correctly identifying objects while blindfolded, trying to complete tactile puzzles and receiving information about white canes and guide dogs. It was a successful day for the girls who were able to talk to a number of different people and educate them about the limitations and capabilities of visually impaired people.

Read on to find out more about the Extraordinary Film Festival in our interview with Cedric Defleur, the organiser of the festival.

Dinner in the dark

On Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd December 2017, VIEWS hosted two dinner’s in the dark. The concept of a ‘Dinner in the Dark’ is that fully sighted diners must try to eat their meal in a completely blacked out room . thereby giving them a small insight into what it might be like to be blind. The evenings are usually chaotic and lots of fun, as well as being an eye-opening experience for many.

We hosted our dinners at IRHOV, the local school for blind and deaf children in Liege, where the staff and students of the school helped prepare the meals for our guests. One of the classrooms was transformed into a dining room, of course ensuring that all windows were covered and all light was prevented from entering the room in preparation for the events. In addition, a tactile pathway was created on the floor on the dining room, to help guide guests and servers alike to navigate the room in total darkness. Speaking of servers, the guests were attended to by visually impaired VIEWS volunteers both evenings. The servers were responsible for guiding their guests to their tables, collecting their drinks from the bar and generally educating them about the realities of being a visually impaired person.

Our guests enjoyed a three course meal including quiche and salad to start, meat with vegetables for main and tiramisu for desert. Both evenings were a great success, but most definitely could not have been possible without the invaluable help of all our fantastic volunteers. They helped prepare the venue and food, serve the meals and clean up afterwards, so of course a very big thank you must go to them for making these evenings possible.

We will be hosting further dinner in the dark events in 2018 and we can only hope that they will be as successful and as much fun as these most recent ones.

Extraordinary Film Festival : interview with Cedric Defleur

My name is Cédric Defleur, I was born in Belgium and I was born visually impaired due to four different conditions; cataract, myopia, glaucoma and aniridia. I am 36 years old and I live alone in an apartment in Namur, Belgium. I am a director for the EOP association, which organizes the international film festival about disabilities where I am the person in charge of the animations, concerts and spectacles. Before that, I studied in specialized education where I learned gardening; Then I did training in animation, energy and environment. Afterwards I studied education. When I’m not busy organizing the festival, I do magic and awareness raising about visual impairment.

The Extraordinary Film festival” Is organise by the non-profit organisation EOP which was created by Luc Boland. He is a Belgian film director who’s 18 year old son Lou was born with a disability. When Lou was born his father (Luc) decided to make a documentary film about him which was shown all around the world; that’s how Luc was invited to different film festivals around the world and that’s what inspired him to create the festival here in Belgium. It was during an awareness campaign in a school that I met Luc when he told me about his festival project and he offered me the opportunity to participate. At first, I was a simple volunteer who did small tasks and then gradually, Luc gave me more responsibilities in the festival. That’s how I first became responsible for animation and then I joined the board. As an animation director, my job is to look for artists with or without disabilities or associations related to disability who agree to come to the festival to entertain or raise awareness for our festival-goers between screenings; And as a director, my job is to ensure the smooth functioning of the organization and that the initial objectives are respected.

The objective of the festival is not to glorify disability, but rather on the one hand is to raise awareness of disability with the general public and also to encourage the audio-visual world to recognise or highlight disabled people and invite the institutional and disability community to to reflect and be informed about different practices. One of our objectives is to also ensure total accessibility of the festival to all people with disabilities through subtitling and audio description, … And that films on the subject that are made around the world, whether short, long, documentary, fiction, are recognized or broadcast on TV channels and in the cinema.

We have several objectives such as the accessibility of the festival to different disabilities, the awareness of the general public, the involvement of the audio-visual world and associations in the field of disability and the awareness of the political world of the difficulties encountered (human and financial means, infrastructure and inclusion). In terms of accessibility, we are proud to be the first film festival in Belgium to be accessible to all disabled people. We try to improve every year by taking into account the feedback and do better the following editions. When it comes to raising public awareness, we are satisfied with this fourth edition which has brought us 20% of the public compared to the 2015 edition, so that this year we have reached the number of 6000 spectators out of the four festival days. In relation to the audio-visual sector and the non-profit sector to bring them to see the 44 films of the selection of this fourth edition, we organized two round tables, one of which was on “filming disability ” and the other “was called image, communication and disability”, both of which have been very successful. In terms of the political level, we realize that it is very difficult to involve the politicians and that there is still a lot of work to do with them because the viability of our project depends on their funding that they can’t easily unlock.

My favorite moment during the festival is when I welcome artists and associations, I see that together we work for a good cause. And I love the festival time because we meet many people and despite the language barrier, there emerges a strong family atmosphere, tolerance, and respect for each other. The festival itself is the moment that I prefer because it is the culmination of every two years of preparation.

However, it’s always the time before a festival which is difficult, because we never know if we will have enough funding to produce the festival because of all the arrangements and adaptations, as well as the costs to bring the films and the creators is a lot. For this edition, we did not have enough funding so we had to launch a call for donations to the population, which was a great success and we added more than 18,000 euros in addition to our fund to organize the festival. Personally, in my function what is difficult is the search for disabled artists because these people usually do not dare to present their work to the public even though they are full of talents. I remain convinced that there is always a way to make things possible, it’s just a matter of providing the environment and encouragement for these talented people to flourish.

As a magician artist and disabled person, the project of the festival fits in my values because it allows me on the one hand to raise awareness of disability and to present a point of view of disability through films with a team that has the same point of view as me; On the other hand, I can bring my experience as an artist in order to showcase other artists who are sometimes misunderstood. The festival allows me to accomplish my artistic hobby but also my values and my point of view.

As after each addition, we were sad that this year’s festival is over because we never know if there will be a next edition, but I am still satisfied with the work we have provided and to have been able to produce the festival, just as the fact to have allowed artists or associations to show their work. I am also pleased with the success of this fourth edition and the evolution we are taking with each edition of the festival.
I of course remain hopeful to participate in similar projects in the future. Whether in Belgium or abroad, I think it’s important to learn from the experiences of others and their cultures. I like to discover, explore, try and exchange because it allows you to grow. My dream would be to be able to create a foundation or association to promote artists with disabilities and to travel abroad to discover and inspire me.