Feach has recently registered with the CRO as a charity. Prior to this, Feach was run as a totally voluntary organisation made up of parents of blind & visually impaired children. Our focus is equality in access to education for blind and visually impaired children. We have a very active and engaged committee that meets on a bi-monthly basis during the school year. We are primarily a support group, however, as a result of shortcomings in the services available to our children, we have been involved in lobbying varying Government agencies on their behalf. We successfully campaigned for the inclusion of children with low vision in the July Provision, free travel and companion passes for Blind and Visually Children and we were instrumental in the setting up of the National Braille and Large Print Production Centre.
We are "small but mighty" and that is how we wish to stay. We are never going to be large in number as we are a low incidence disability, but what we are is high impact. What we do really affects and improves individuals' lives. With the right interventions at the right time, the outcomes of our children and all with visual impairments can be greatly improved. This is not a difficult fix. We launched our Education Strategy one year ago, we already have 80 new members, we were shortlisted by SEI for their Impact Award, we have secured funding from Novartis for a post primary school guide and NCBI have increased their funding by 20%. They all recognise that what we are doing has impact and creates greater equality in society. We are parent lead which keeps our remit very pure and focused however we need the right Board in place to take this to the next level and ensure we can continue into the future.
