Charity provides equipment for visually impaired children from North East Sight Matters
Local charity, The Chronicle Sunshine Fund recently provided a bundle of equipment to Northumberland-based North East Sight Matters (NESM) for its members who have a wide variety of sight loss and visual impairments.
The Chronicle Sunshine Fund aims to enhance the lives of babies, children, and young adults with disabilities and terminal illnesses. Extending beyond individual or family support, the charity strives to ensure all children have the opportunity to live safely, and comfortably and meet their potential.
The charity provides specialist and adapted equipment to a range of organisations that provide care, support, and education to disabled children including schools, nurseries, and community groups.
Families that attend NESM events will be able to access equipment including an Apple iPad; Apple Air Tags; magnifying devices; canes; anti-glare glasses; baseball caps and rucksacks; ear buds and defenders, and LED torches.
The iPad is available to learn about the extensive and advanced accessibility features. It is loaded with new and appropriate apps relevant to children with visual impairments, to promote leisure and learning.
Canes are available for families to experience and trial, to see if they support the young persons’ visual and mobility needs.
The baseball caps and anti-glare glasses help filter bright light, and if more light is required, they can use the torches and illuminated magnifiers.
NESM was set up during the 2020 lockdown by Vision Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS), Penny Dane. Penny has over 26 years of experience working with both adults and children with sight loss.
Penny is joined by two other directors, Caroline Boulby, another VRS with over 30 years’ experience, and Charlotte Stephenson, a teacher with the SEND Sensory Service, Children’s Vision Team, in Newcastle.
The North East has the highest number of disabilities recorded at 29 per cent. Five per cent of disabilities amongst UK children are visual impairments, according to The Chronicle Sunshine Fund.
The organisation was set up as a need to support families with children and young people with sight loss in the region was identified during the pandemic. The support provided by NESM started as virtual lessons and has grown beyond what the team could ever have expected, as they now deliver a range of accessible and educational activities and events across the region.
Many of NESM members are individual children that The Chronicle Sunshine Fund has supported with equipment such as pieces of eye-gaze technology costing thousands, for use in their own homes and schools.
The charity was proud to be able to support the group as a whole and give even more children and young adults access to life changing equipment to improve their activities and learning.
The Chronicle Sunshine Fund funds equipment totalling £1,000 to be used by families at NESM events, “with the aim of enhancing the children’s experience and giving them greater access”, according to Penny.
The charity has four equipment rounds per year, each costing upwards of £30,000 on average, and it receives zero statutory funding from the government or local authorities.
Demand for equipment is growing and costs are rising; in the last 12 months, The Chronicle Sunshine Fund has seen a number of applications for equipment rise by a colossal 43 per cent, which demonstrates the increasing need across the region, and which is why your support is needed now more than ever.
“Because of the array of equipment The Sunshine Fund provided it gives each individual child and young person the opportunity to engage more appropriately for their particular circumstance”, Penny concluded.
