Activities aimed at strengthening the sense of smell, touch, orientation and mobility, in order to achieve greater autonomy and rehabilitation, will mark the celebration of the International Day of the Deafblind on 27 June in Ciego de Ávila.

This was reported by Alberto Cervantes Sanchez, president of the organising committee in this province, who added that the main objective of this celebration is to disseminate the basic needs of deafblind people, as well as their right to improve their quality of life and to develop their full potential as any other human being.

He said that, in total, in the 10 municipalities of Avila there are 26 people, all of them older adults, with the unique condition of having a total or partial limitation of their senses of distance: vision and hearing.

In 1989, in Stockholm, Sweden, 27 June was established as the International Day of the Deafblind, in commemoration of the birth of Helen Keller, the first deafblind person who demonstrated the ability of her peers and their basic needs.