Have You Ever Wondered How Difficult Your Life Would Be Without the Primary Sense, Which Is Your Sight?

Have you ever wondered how difficult your life would be without the primary sense, which is your sight?
Do you know how difficult it is to function without proper assistance while you are unable to see what is happening around you?
Would you like to dedicate one moment to find out something about how you can help more than 42 million of blind people (and many more visually impaired) ?

So please, join me and act, today.

Allow me to share by reading this letter about our Foundation From Eye To Heart, till the end.        

Something about our Foundation:
Our foundation was created on my family’s initiative because of the lack of financial resources to provide my blind aunt with proper help. It started with the usual collection for a guide dog and a year later in 2009 we decided to dedicate our life to helping the blind and training their guides. Our place of business is Washington, but every year go further and now we operate all around the country. We are supported by more and more people as well as sponsors, and thanks to the collected funds, we are able to hire more employees that will properly train our pets.

What exactly do we do?
In our foundation we:
-deal with social and occupational rehabilitation of the blind and visually impaired people, thanks to the guide dogs trained by us that are later passed on to those people for free.

-promote knowledge about the role of a guide dog and using the idea of the so-called foster families, i.e. volunteers bringing up puppies for a period of about 14 months, i.e until the moment of training.

- train 10 guide dogs every year.

-cooperate with Foodie Doggie, which produces healthy, natural food for dogs, and at the same time we promote our Foundation.

-organize meetings with blind people to familiarize them with the role of a guide dog and the facilitations of using this help.

-are constantly improving the instructors’ qualifications by participating in trainings and exchanging experiences with foreign schools.

-provide our dogs with care when they are older and stop being a guide or when a blind person does not want to or could take care of him.

About the dog guide:
The dogs are in training to become a seeing-eye dogs for a blind or visually impaired people.
Not every dog will be able to work in this role- these preferred are very calm, balanced animals with a strong psyche.

The breed is also important- the most predisposed breeds are: Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, Flat Coated Retrievers and crossbreeds of these breeds in the first generation, as well as a white Swiss Shepherd.

The training of the animal lasts about a year- it consists of several stages and an exam.

During this time, the dog learns a number of commands, including guiding the person to the selected side of the pavement, finds and passes dropped objects, marks traffic lights, curbs and pedestrian crossings, bypasses the obstacles on the route, leads the blind to the trash can, doors, stairs, etc., marks the steps, moves escalators.

A hallmark of a group of working dogs is a harness- colloquially called a clothing. When the dog has it on he knows he is working. These dogs allow their owners to be fully independent in their daily lives. Thanks to the independence and high level of rehabilitation, a blind person becomes a full member of society. All of this improves the relationship between blind people with non-disabled people, increases their self-esteem and also provides a sense of security.

What I have heard once from a blind person said has opened my eyes to important issues that we- non-disabled- usually don’t think about while doing usual activities:

‘I wanted to find a method that would give me freedom, comfort and independence in everyday life. I knew there must be a key to enjoying life in a similar way as non-disabled people. Firstly, I considered a standard white cane but after a long time spent navigating with it , I knew that it wasn’t the independence I wanted. One day, I found out about different method- a guide dog. And I have to admit that even the best-fitting white cane doesn’t replace the perfectly prepared pair of eyes.

I am a blind person since I was born and have been guided by my loving Labrador for eight years. I became more open and I understood that nothing limits me- I could and still can discover new, previously unknown places, pursue my passions, meet new interesting people.’