About us

Mission

We share the vision of a world in which blind and deaf people in Romania enjoy the same rights, opportunities, responsibilities, fulfilment and quality of life as their able-bodied peers.

Objectives

We aim to support Romanian people with a visual or hearing impairment to improve their lives, to expand their possibilities and to become active and accepted members of the Romanian society

We aim to achieve our Mission & Objectives through:

Changing the attitudes and social behaviour towards blind and deaf people
Being a catalyst for social and professional inclusion of the blind and deaf people
Encouraging better education, training and employment of blind and deaf individuals in Romania.
Providing educational support services to the schools for sensory impaired and families with sensory impaired children from our resource centre
Promoting accessible information and equipment
Developing integrated programs on early intervention and employment support

Values

Respect and dignity for the individual
Making a positive difference to people
Participation and empowerment
Aiming for equality

Registrations

We are an applicant member of the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF)
We are a member of the European Guide Dog Federation (EGDF)

History

Light into Europe is a British-Romanian charity founded in 1986 and which has been active in Romania since 1990. From 1997 to 2003 Light into Europe was invited by the Ministry of Health to be the sole provider of Air Ambulance services, saving 900 lives over 4000 flying hours. In 2003, the Air Ambulance service was handed over to SMURD.
Since 2003, the focus of Light into Europe has been on supporting blind and deaf people in Romania and developing services to support them to be able to live independent lives as part of the community.
In 2007 we opened our Resource Centre for the Sensory Impaired which hosts our Guide Dog Centre, Braille Library and Big Print Book production as well our creative education workshops.
In 2010 we successfully trained and matched our 1st Guide Dog for the Blind, Chloe with Gabi Nicolescu. Since this time we have trained and expanded the programme to support more visually impaired around the country and also provided assistance dogs to children with autism and persons with epilepsy.

Our beliefs:

Deaf or Blind children can do anything other children can do, given the right support from the start.
Effective language and communication skills lie at the heart of deaf children and young people’s social, emotional and intellectual development.
Families are the most important influence on our Blind or Deaf children and young people , and need clear, balanced information to make informed choices.
Deaf or Blind children should be involved in decisions which affect them as early as possible.
People with disabilities should be valued by society and have the same opportunities as any other person.

Why we do it

We will continue to work to see sensory impaired children and young people in Romania enjoy the same rights, opportunities, responsibilities, fulfilment and quality of life as their able-bodied peers.

Society in general has reduced expectations for people with disabilities
They are not expected to participate and compete actively in inclusive activities
Lack of active measures to support employment left them for generations dependent only on the disability allowance
Structured activities that promote inclusion and participation in a wide variety of school-community-work-based endeavors are known to enable them to develop and demonstrate their competencies.

The people who need our support today

Approximately 100,000 people in Romania have significant sight impairments and around 30,000 are Deaf.
Many also have additional disabilities and/or learning and other difficulties.
The number of people with sight or hearing loss grows significantly each year.

Our Board:

Light into Europe is led by a group of highly qualified professionals that bring a wealth of expertise, all of whom are bound together by their commitment to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities in Romania and making a long-lasting difference to the lives of children and adults that live with sight or hearing loss.