What is EDbN? |
What is EDbN? |
In 1987 the ECDBS, European Community Deafblind Secretariat, was established by national representatives of deafblind organisations, family members organisations and professional organisations from the EU countries. In 1994 the Council meeting of ECDBS in Greece decided to change the name of the organisation to EDbN, (European Deafblind Network). The governing body of EDbN is the Council and the Management Committee.The Council consists of three national representatives from each country: a deafblind representative, a family representative and a professional representative. Every four years the Council elects a Management Committee of three deafblind representatives, three family representatives and three professional representatives. The chairperson is elected by the Council on a rotational basis amongst the three groups.
The Council appoints a Treasurer and a Secretary. The Secretary carries out the day to day work of the organisation.
Until 1999 EDbN had Council members from 14 EU countries (none from Luxembourg). A number of organisations from European countries outside EU have participated in EDbN activities and many have expressed a wish to become part of EdbN. At the Council meeting in Poitiers, France in 1999, EDbN decided to welcome members from all European countries and in 2000 new Council members from Poland, Malta and Switzerland participated in the Council.
The activities of EDbN are diverse and have developed over the years. EDbN has an annual Council Meeting and Seminar. EDbN has supported about 120 different multinational projects during the 12 years of its existence; conferences, seminars, study groups, cultural exchanges and meetings. Many of them were Dbl network activities. Three very successful European Conferences for family members have also been organised.
EDbN circulates its own newsletter and has an email bulletin called the EDbN clipboard. In the past three years EDbN has received co-ordination grants from the European Commission. EDbN has an officer representative on different European and International bodies. The membership of the board of the European Disability Forum, EDF, and some of its commissions is very important. This allows us to co-operate with other European disability organisations in a way that is increasingly necessary considering that the climate of political will to support European disability organisations is decreasing.
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