EDbN  European Deafblind Network 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 General Assembly and the Management Committee. In 2003 a decision was made to continue the work of EDbN despite a lack of funding.

The General Assembly is made up deafblind people, family members and professionals. The Management Committee is made up of deafblind people, family members and professionals, most of whom work voluntarily.

The Management Committee includes the Chair, Wolfgang Angermann, the Secreatary, Ursula Heinemann, Lucy Drescher who is in charge of the campaigning work, Ricard Lopez who is responsible for the website and the email network and William Green who is the link person with DBI (Deafblind International).

As the membership of the European Union has grown so the membership of EDbN has grown. Now, the majority of the 27 Member States are represented and actively involved.

The activities of EDbN are diverse and have developed over the years. In the past EDbN supported about 120 different multinational projects during the first 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 were also organised. Now EDbN is a network of people campaigning for greater recognition of deafblindness in Europe and the inclusion of the needs of deafblind people in European society and policy work.

The Chair of EDbN is a member of the European Disability Forum (EDF). This allows us to work with other European disability organisations and take part in the policy work of the European Union. EDF often asks EDbN to contribute to policy work to ensure that the needs of deafblind people are included. The expertise of all the members of EDbN is valuable to this work. A group of 'Experts' has been created to formalise this work.

EDbN Management Committee:

Lucy Drescher:

• Lead campaigning
• Encouraging participation in campaigns
• Disseminating information on campaigns

Ursula Heinemann (Network Co-ordinator):

• Managing the administration of EdbN
• Responding to enquiries
• Encouraging participation
• Disseminating information
• Coordination and support for meetings

Ricard Lopez:

• Website management
• Managing the EDbN email group
• Encouraging participation of families
• Liaison with Dbl

Wolfgang Angermann:

• Chair
• Official representative on EDF
• liaison with WFDB, EDBU and EBU

EDbN Constitution.

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