Putting a spotlight on CNIB

There's a provincial-wide push on bringing attention to the role of the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind).

The Town of Labrador City hosted an information session last Thursday for Len Baker-managing director for eastern Canada in service and operations-to explain what the role of the CNIB is and to outline the challenges and financial issues the not-for-profit organization faces.

Accompanying Baker to Labrador West was Jim Hynes who told his story of how he quickly learned that CNIB was not what he originally thought, "a place where they put people who were blind." Hynes told his own personal story of how he woke up a couple of years ago to blurry vision in his right eye. Thinking it was nothing too serious, suspecting a cold in the eye or something he was not alarmed.

The next day he couldn't see anything out of the eye and went and sought out an optometrist.

"The optometrist told me I had Ischemic optic neuropathy (ION); it took me a year to learn how to say it," Hynes jokes telling his story. "He explained it was a stroke in my eye and told me there is a 15 per cent chance I would lose sight in my left eye in 10 years. He told me there was no cure or it couldn't have been prevented."

Hynes travelled to St. Louis, MI to a specialized facility, but in the end was given the same prognosis.

He contacted the CNIB and decided to become actively involved. He has learned the organization is not just for the blind; it's for people who are dealing with vision impairments. The CNIB provides many services for its 3,300 clients in the province with only13 staff.

Hynes has been active in fundraising as outlines his amazement of how the organization can still even keep its lights on with the paltry amount of funds it has in its operating budget.

"We have an operating budget of $1.56 million," Baker said. "We need $2.68 to run our organization adequately."

The managing director told his listening audience there are currently three CNIB centres in the province-St. John's, Grand Falls-Windsor and Corner Brook-and he wants a fourth one put in Labrador because there is a need.

"We have 125 clients who are from Labrador," he said. "Now, we know that the number of people with vision impairments is a lot higher than that, that is just the number who have been referred to the CNIB."

Baker said 60 of that 125 are in Labrador West.

Having a centre in Labrador, he said, would make it a lot easier for those requiring the services.

"It's important for people to keep their independence, to stay working and take care of their families when their vision is impaired," he said. "We provide the skills and assistance that people need in order to do that. It may be as simple as having someone come in and mark a stove to make cooking safer."

The provincial government funds only 50 per cent of the CNIB's operating budget, the rest of the money has to be fundraised. The demand is getting higher and higher for the services and the fundraising is getting more and more difficult to reach the required goals.

Hynes pointed out four of five diseases of the eye are preventable and said most people will go to the dentist to have their teeth cleaned twice a year, but that vigilance is not there in caring for eyes but it ought to be.

Baker and Hynes said they want to raise the awareness of municipalities of what the CNIB is and how important its service is to the communities in the province. Both mayors from Wabush and Labrador City assured Hynes and Baker it would be a issue they will bring to their council tables and thanked them for coming to the area.

15,000 residents in Newfoundland and Labrador have significant vision loss that interferes with their ability to read a newspaper or see the faces of their loved ones.

Only 32 per cent of working-age adults with vision loss are employed.

Almost half of all adults with vision loss report gross annual incomes of $20,000 or less.

CNIB funding comes from individuals, corporations and organizations with only 47 per cent coming from Health and Community Services.

The CNIB Library is one of the world's largest specialized libraries for people with disabilities and offers Braille, print Braille and talking books, descriptive videos, newspapers and magazines as well as telephone, reference and online services.