In its 75 years of existence, the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (National Organization of the Blind) ONCE has built a system of social provision for people with blindness or severe visual impairment without equivalent in any other country in the world. A government body, consisting of several ministries and the ONCE itself enforces its social purposes and their progressive adaptation to social, political and economic transformations.

In 1988 the ONCE Foundation for Cooperation and Social Inclusion of People with disabilities is created, so also celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013. During this period the ONCE Foundation has generated more than 80,000 jobs for people with disabilities. Today the institutional set, coupled on its primary purpose: the social and labor inclusion of people with disabilities, is known as the ONCE and its Foundation.

Over the years, the organization has articulated other initiatives of solidarity. The ONCE Foundation for the care of blind people in Latin America (FOAL), born in 1998 is a good example. Currently he is developing training and employment projects in 19 countries in the Americas and other depressed areas. Was also established, in 2007, the ONCE Foundation for the Care of People with Deafblindness (FOAPS).

Meanwhile, within the European Union, the ONCE and its Foundation to strengthen ties go disability gaining ground in the field of Community policies. Along with other organizations in the world of disability, achievement scores on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (protocol approved December 13, 2006 at UN headquarters in New York) of great importance as the UN Convention, and a good positioning of its thesis in debates as the European regulations on accessibility and employment of people with disabilities. European Commissioners have visited Spain in recent years with the ONCE and its Foundation in the agenda. Striking in the European Community social inclusion model built in our country hand of the ONCE and its Foundation.

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