Some weeks ago the IKS staff proposed a new activity for us: to walk and hanging out with blind people. Walking with the blind was a new and stimulating experience. In my life I had never known and been this close to blind people before. It was a really challenging  time spent with ''my'' blind person, first of all there was the language  barrier, he didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Croatian, and I'm Italian so to express myself I always gesticulate and with blind people, of course it doesn't work. At the beginning of the walk I was feeling really insecure and a little uncomfortable because I didn’t know how to act and to interact with them, but Mladen put me at ease. He was really cute, he reassured me and he said that I was doing a good job, we talked a little bit. I now understand the different positions and the ways that they use to ''view" the things around them with the sticks or using the sense of touch. At the end of the walk we just sat down for a coffee all together, we spent some time talking about ourselves, their life experiences, and joking about their view. At the end of the walk I think that we were tired but at the same time happy. It is an experience that I would like to do another time. Prije nekoliko tjedana osoblje IKS-a predložilo nam je novu aktivnost: šetnju i druženje sa slijepim osobama. Šetnja sa slijepima bila je novo i poticajno iskustvo. U svom životu nikada prije nisam poznavala i bila ovako bliska slijepim ljudima. Bilo je to zaista izazovno vrijeme provedeno sa '' mojom '' slijepom osobom, prije svega postojala je jezična barijera, on nije govorio engleski, a ja ne govorim hrvatski. Ja sam Talijanka pa često gestikuliram kako bih se izrazila, sa slijepim osobama, naravno to ne funkcionira. Na početku šetnje osjećala sam se stvarno nesigurno i pomalo neugodno jer nisam znala kako se ponašati i komunicirati s njima, ali Mladen me oslobodio. Bio je stvarno simpatičan, umirio me i rekao da radim dobar posao, malo smo razgovarali. Sada razumijem različite položaje i načine na koje koriste štapove ili osjećaj dodira kako bi „vidjeli“ stvari oko sebe. Na kraju šetnje smo zajedno sjeli na kavu, proveli vrijeme razgovarajući o sebi, svojim životnim iskustvima i šaleći se o njihovom vidu. Na kraju šetnje mislim da smo bili umorni, ali istovremeno sretni. To je iskustvo koje bih voljela doživjeti još jednom.      

Sadržaj ovog članka isključiva je odgovornost Udruge IKS.

Projekt “volonterIKS ” financira Ministarstvo za demografiju, obitelj, mlade i socijalnu politiku.