Winston Churchill Fellowship Report

In September 2012 UCAN Productions Co-founder and Development Director Jane Latham traveled to America on a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship with the aim of developing new and lasting links with schools, colleges and organisations that support visually impaired young people in America.

Jane first visited Perkins School for the Blind, the oldest school for the blind in the United States. “The Perkins School is an inspirational place which pays homage to the history of pioneering work done to support blind and partially sighted people in the past and at the same time forges ahead with the use of new and amazing technologies.”

UCAN Cardiff Optometry Student Volunteer Travels to Malawi

In March we wrote about how we had received a generous donation from the family of Haf Morris.  We would like to again thank Iwan and Rhian Morris as we donated some of the funds to UCAN Volunteer Georgina Lucas, a student Optometrist, who visited Malawi in September 2013.  Georgina said:

“My name is Georgina Lucas, I am currently studying Optometry at Cardiff University. In early September 2013 I went on a trip to Malawi to test peoples eyes and give out glasses where needed. The trip was organised through a charity called ‘Sight 2020 Direct’, the charity is also known as the ‘Onani Eye Foundation’ in Malawi. The team who I went with comprised of 9 people, all of varying professions, mostly eye related. Between us we managed to see over 2200 people through vision screening and sight tests.  It was an incredible experience, allowing me to gain exposure to various eye conditions that would normally have already been treated in the UK, and to practise skills that I have learnt at university. I would like to thank the family of Haf Morris for their donation via UCAN towards my trip to Malawi.”

UCAN Lead graduates lecture at Cardiff Univeristy, School of Optometry and Vision Sciences

UCAN members Megan John and Mared Jarman graduated from the UCAN Lead workshop leader training programme in July and last week, Megan and Mared delivered a lecture to Optometry students at Cardiff University, School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, titled ‘Living With Visual Impairment’.

Dr Rhodri Woodhouse, a Teaching Fellow at Cardiff University, School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, said:

‘One of the objectives of the Human Development module is for students to understand the people they will be testing for the rest of their optometry careers. I approached UCAN with the hopes that they could lead some practical sessions and give the students a first-hand insight into living with visual impairment. Megan and Mared jumped at the opportunity to run the sessions and their first session went better than any of us had expected. They engaged the students and kept their attention with more skill than some who have been lecturing for much longer! The students engaged well with the tasks they were given and all of them came away with a greater understanding of what it means to be visually impaired than they had entered the room with. We’re already looking forward to seeing what the girls come up with next year!’

UCAN member Angharad lands lead role in new CBeebies programme

We are delighted to announce that our wonderfully talented UCAN Member Angharad, from North Wales, recently

Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales

Like many organisations in Wales, we are excitedly preparing to celebrate the 2014 centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth. At UCAN our offering to the celebrations has a unique and international approach, which will soon become apparent in our next big project: Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales. We would like to thank The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travel Fellowship, Wales Arts International and The Arts Council of Wales for supporting this exciting new collaboration. For the project we will be co-creating a radio play of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, developed with audio description embedded within the text with our American partners Revels and Perkins Radio. Visually impaired young people from Wales and America will feature in the lead roles and create the accompanying music. We will also be staging live performances of our adaption in South East Wales. This project is funded by The Arts Council of Wales and it was made possible by a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship, which was awarded to UCAN’s Co-founder and Development Director Jane Latham in 2012. The fellowship enabled Jane to visit America and discover opportunities for UCAN members and develop new and lasting links with American organisations that support blind and partially sighted young people. To read more about the fellowship please click here. Jane was accompanied by her husband; UCAN’s Co-founder and Artistic Director Bernard Latham. With the support of Wales Arts International, Bernard traveled to America to build relationships with other arts organisation to initiate future collaborative projects. Jane said “We are delighted with the outcome of our visit to America and are very much looking forward to working with our American partners. We feel we have made real progress in developing links between the visually impaired communities here in Wales and in America and hope this will be the beginning of long and meaningful partnerships.” To find out about the official Dylan Thomas 100 festival, please go to their website: http://www.dt100.info/