Sense International (Romania) has made a huge impact on the lives of deafblind people since its inception in 1999. Their work focuses on improving the quality of life for deafblind people in Romania – children, as well as adults. They have developed programmes targeting deaf blindness from various points of view: social, educational, and medical. Through Sense International’s activities, they create the necessary tools for early diagnosis, treatment and intervention, they develop educational services for deafblind children and adults and increase awareness at national level of their specific needs.

The ALMT supports the Early Intervention Programme in Romania which targets babies at risk of deaf blindness. The Programme screens and identifies babies in the maternity ward. The aim is to reach deafblind babies and children at the earliest stage possible, to ensure that they receive appropriate support to enable them to develop communication, mobility, and social skills in the pre-school years, which are so vital to a child’s development. Integral to the project is the involvement of families from assessment through to the development of cognitive and communication skills so that children are supported at home as well as by professionals.

All the staff have substantial experience in working with deaf blind children and provide counselling and support to the new parents of a deaf blind child, undertake a functional assessment and establish an individualised intervention plan. Over 4,000 new born babies have already benefited from vision and hearing screening, and this project is reaching many more.