Ministry to Blind/ Low Vision

Community Awareness & Victim Support

If you can't see a way to help someone who's blind,
then our ministry exists for you

What we do

In commemoration of "World Sight Day and White Cane Day" 2021, Ophthalmologist Dr. Desiree Murray suggested that our best estimates, based on the National Eye Survey (2013-2014) places 79,000 visually impaired persons, including 10,200 who are blind currently living in T&T. Many of these individuals continue to experience stigma and discrimination in society including access to: • Certain categories of employment, • Training/education, • Places of business/services, • Even places of worship. The Loving the Forgotten (LTF) project started off as a response by the Youth of the TACUMA District for Global Youth Day 2022, to begin to address some of the needs of the blind community in Trinidad and Tobago. Now managed by the Laminin Foundation, this ministry seeks to address the needs of this often forgotten and neglected community by recruiting, training, and deploying suitable volunteers to provide a range of services to persons who are blind and/or low vision in need of assistance and who agree to comply with stipulated conditions.

What we do

Casa de Corazon Children's Home, formerly called the Heart Home, was established in 1991 by Pastor Clive Dottin, then Youth Director of the South Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Ps. Dottin was supported by Mildred Jones and later, Ms. Angela Joseph of ‘Friends Forever’ in getting the initiative up and running as a response to children who were victims of abuse and abandonment and in need of a safe space. The Laminin Foundation seeks to recruit and empower a cadre of committed volunteers to support this institution in enhancing the lives of the children residents. Members and volunteers alike can donate ﬁnances as well as food items such as groceries, vegetables, juices, and fruits to support the needs of the children. On occasions, Laminin may also sponsor prepared meals when resources are available.

Volunteers

Volunteers in this ministry range in ages, experience, skills, and abilities, and provide direct services (from the list of approved services) to recipients from the Blind and Visually Impaired community signed on to our program. Services include reading, grocery shopping, payment of utilities and completion of documents, and may involve the provision of transportation when needed. They update the volunteer logs after providing each service to recipients capturing information such as: the type of service rendered, duration of service, challenges encountered, how they dealt with challenges (if any), their level of satisfaction in providing the service, and suggestions for how they can be better supported as volunteers to improve service delivery. Volunteers can commit to as little as one call out per month to as many as they can reasonably manage. Call outs typically range between 2-4 hours each time.

Volunteers

Volunteer roles in this ministry varies and in partnership with the institution can include periodic visits (conducting spiritual and fun activities with the children), tutoring (assisting with speciﬁc subject areas), mentoring (volunteers provide advice to children interested in their profession), and adoption (Volunteers may assist with education expenses such as textbooks, uniform etc. or simply remembering their assigned child’s birthday and sponsoring a gift) Volunteer time commitment in this ministry ranges from 4-8 hours per month.