Integrating into the labor market: 12 trainees with blindness and visual impairments will learn massage at the Center for the Blind together with eight volunteer staff members
Massage with eyes closed
Photo:
The Center for the Blind
About three years ago, the Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Services decided to close the masseur course for people with blindness and visual impairments, whose operating cost was estimated at NIS 29,000 per cycle.
The course will now reopen at the Center for the Blind with the participation of 12 trainees and eight volunteer staff members, in accordance with the Corona guidelines and free of charge.
Solomon Bitton, who trained himself in a course in complementary medicine at the Wingate Institute, decided to take up the gauntlet and re-establish the course with the help of the Center for the Blind in Israel and a team of volunteers.
Bitton lost his sight in 2003, following an illness that erupted when he experienced trauma during his military service as deputy commander of a reconnaissance unit.
Despite the great difficulty of continuing with the routine of his life after losing his sight, Solomon continued his life with determination, and began his studies in a course in complementary medicine at the Wingate Institute.
At the end of his training, Solomon began massaging privately and voluntarily for a variety of populations and organizations, including the Oncology Department at Soroka Hospital, the Warrior House in Be'er Sheva, massage for people with severe disabilities at the Aleh Negev Center in Ofakim, volunteering in the IDF, and more. Solomon entered the assembly area with about 250 volunteers and conducted massages and treatments for the soldiers.
Nati Bialystok Cohen, CEO of the Center for the Blind in Israel, who hosts the course, said that "We are happy to restore the crown to its former glory and take part in the re-establishment of a massage course for people with blindness and visual impairments.
We are happy to give people with blindness and visual impairments the opportunity to integrate in the field of employment in general and in the field of complementary medicine in particular. "