It goes almost unnoticed by the sobriety of the building, but I'm sure if you ask anyone on the street, we can say where the office of ONCE (corner of Calle San José with Pare Pere) is.
There we move to talk to the director of the Agency, Vicente Miguel Català, and the commercial manager, Kico Ferri, who treated us kindly to know a little more about the ins and outs of the office and especially the important work ONCE done in Dénia and region.
And it is that from here the management of all the Marina Alta except Calpe, dependent on Benidorm. In Dénia alone, 186 people are affiliated with ONCE: 69 of them work for the Agency and the rest work externally, they are students or pensioners.
The work of the ONCE in Dénia
The fundamental work of the ONCE is to employ people with disabilities, without forgetting the dedication to social services: from an adaptation of the job to optical aids, or aid to third parties to assist in housework, complementing aid the public sector. Students are helped through recorders for classes, Braille speakWhich allows totally blind to take notes in Braille, in addition advice to teachers so they can know how to treat a person with visual impairment (blackboards, helps with notes ...).
its affiliates
Affiliates are people with a visual impairment of 1,10 on the scale of Wecker, or what is the same, not being able to count the fingers of one hand at a distance of 2 meters with corrective lenses. In interested in joining should approach the office and pay 36 euros thanks to those who are entitled to an ophthalmological examination in Alicante. A commission will determine whether the person is eligible to join the ONCE. If it is affiliated, ONCE returns the money. But not only the visually impaired can work ONCE; people certifying a minimum of 33% disability can work, after passing a series of medical examinations and workshops in the Organization.
And it has not been easy to find the necessary Denia sellers. Low demand in the city made its operators move to Alicante and find people to work here, but a while ago they opened a job in CREAMA allowed to find many people who meet the requirements to work with them.
When affiliates have more work is in times of summer when the city receives more visitors, such as Easter and bridges, although highly dependent on the weather. And do not forget the extraordinary drawings of ONCE, especially highlighting August, which this year will be held on 9.
And if I get a prize?
Since the agency recommend depositing the coupon awarded a significant amount in the bank (CAM and Santander, after authorization from headquarters, are admitted to the act), although there is the option of going to the office and are they quienen manage the collection, but takes a little longer because the checks to be made of the authenticity of the coupon.
Winning or not winning, we all appreciate the important work of the ONCE, an organization at the national level but here we played very closely, helping every day to improve the quality of life of visually impaired people.
