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Dear Colleagues and Friends from all over Europe, participants in the 3rd Workshop on Training of Teachers of the Visually Impaired.
Dear Guests from the Host Country of this workshop.
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to this festive Opening Reception of the 3rd Workshop on training of teachers of the visually impaired organized by ICEVI Europe.
When I asked the Staff of the Department for Visual Impairment of the Academy of Special Education here in Warsaw to host this 3rd Workshop, the former two were in Budapest in 1997 and in Bratislava in 1999, they immediately and spontaneously reacted, that they were prepared to do so.
From that moment the Staff of this department of the Academy, especially Jadwiga Kwapisz, Grazyna Walczak and Nina Hummel were very active to make this workshop a special event, and I hope, I am sure, that we can say at the end, a real success.
Because the Academy celebrates its 80th Anniversary this year, they proposed that this workshop should be one of the Special Events of this Jubilee. The official celebration will take place in May.
Therefore the Academy and ICEVI Europe not only invited the participants of the workshop, representatives from 27 European countries for this Opening Reception and for tomorrow's Opening Session, but also the Rector of the Academy, other staff members and students of the Academy, Representatives of the Ministry of Education, Representatives of the Association of the Blind in Poland, Representatives from the field of Education of the Visually Impaired and other relations of the Academy: I wish all of you a hearty welcome.
A word of special welcome to Mrs Sylwia Sobiepan, representative of the Batory Foundation, the equivalent of the Soros Foundations in other Central and Eastern European Countries, for the financial support of this workshop. It would have been impossible to organize this workshop without this support. Many, many thanks.
The host committee proposed to open our Workshop in this Gallery, first to listen to some musical performances, (people who participated in the Cracow Conference in 2000 will remember the high standard of musical performances here in Poland), followed by an informal gathering to become acquainted with each other or to greet old friends.
I wish you a pleasant evening.
May I now give the floor to Mrs Jadwiga Kwapisz, pro-rector of the Academy, chairperson of the host committee.
Herman Gresnigt
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Colleagues,
I am greatly honoured to have the pleasure of welcoming you to this opening ceremony of the Third European Conference on Education of Teachers for the Blind and Low Vision pupils. I find the fact of hosting the workshops this particular year deeply satisfying, as this year is especially important for our Academy of Special Education. We celebrate the 80th anniversary of our School. We are the oldest pedagogical university in Poland.
Several outstanding lecturers have worked for the good name of the School: prof. Maria Grzegorzewska - whose name the Academy proudly bears - , prof. Józefa Joteyko, Janusz Korczak. It is the education and rehabilitation of the blind and low vision pupils that has always been a very important specialisation in our Academy since the School was founded.
I would like to express my gratitude to Mr Herman Gresnigt, European Chairman of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment, for several years of co-operation with the Academy of Special Education as well as schools for the blind in Poland. I would also like to thank you, Mr Gresnigt, for your contribution in organising the European Conference in the year 2000, and finally for the possibility of holding the present Conference.
The Gallery we are in bears the name of John Paul the Second. This place is very important for the Varsovians not only because of all the valuable collections here, but also because this place is open to different, highly valued social initiatives.
Here I would like to express my great thanks to Mr Bogdan Kurant, Director of the Gallery, and to all the employees working for it, for the assistance given with the organisation of today's ceremony and making this beautiful venue available to us.
The subjects of the coming workshops are especially relevant since they concern education for mainstream school teachers who work with blind and low vision pupils.
Recent years in our country have seen changes in many fields, educational policy being one of them. I believe that the participation of representatives from 27 countries in common discussion on the strategy for the support of integration will broaden our knowledge, may improve educational law, and thus enhance our pedagogical practice.
One of the teachers from an integration school used to say: "Integration is like a rose - beautiful, but if you give it the wrong way it can prick you hard with its thorns". For the next three days we will consider how we can avoid these "thorns".
I wish you a very pleasant evening.
Jadwiga Kwapisz
will be available later on