Only 1 in 9 visually impaired persons finds job after training

For six years now persons with visual impairments have been offered employment courses at a Center run by the Blind People's Society, however the Society's director says that, despite the effort, only 2 of the 18 persons trained every six months actually find jobs, and the others have to make do with the benefits offered by the state. “We inaugurated this Center for Integration and Rehabilitation of Persons with Visual Impairments in 2006. It also has a dormitory with 28 beds. Its mission is to help the young people who have graduated from an educational institution, either specialized or not, and who receive state benefits of just 92 to 133 lei per month”, said the Society's director Dumitru Sclifos. After the training received at the Center, its beneficiaries can become interns for a period of one and a half year at one of the five companies administrated by the Society. The intention is to offer these young people the opportunity to accumulate at least some length of employment to qualify for a minimum retirement pension. “Parliament has dealt a slap to the visually impaired persons after scrapping nominative benefits. Whereas in the past a person with visual impairments received 1,500 lei annually, these benefits don't exist anymore today. These people should at least be offered 150 lei a month for medicines”, said Dumitru Sclifos. Besides the 92-133 lei benefit for the visually impaired, there is also a 300 lei allowance for the carer.