CUDV Draga

Ljubljana, Slovenia

About us

The CUDV Draga is the shortened name of the Draga Education, Health and Employment Centre. The Centre is the largest organization of the country, providing social care and services. It deals with children, young people and adults with disabilities. The Centre both deals with education issues, meeting health needs, and the development of more than 450 children and adults with learning disabilities as well. Besides they run residential homes, provide job opportunities and also run several other programmes and services aimed at improving the living conditions for the people with disabilities.

 

The main aim of the centre is to provide as many opportunities as possible for the people with intellectual disabilities to learn, be housed, spend their free time usefully, get involved in trainings and employment. By helping them, they want these people to achieve a higher standard of living on their own. They employ more than 460 workers, quite a few of whom themselves give training, hold seminars on a wide range of topics. They develop individual education programmes for children and adolescents, as well as help them to find a job and run priority medical programmes for patients with cranial injuries.

 

A few years ago the organization opened the Restaurant Druga Violina in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, where young people with disabilities work as well. The initiative was aimed at creating a safe, cosy environment for people with disabilities, encouraging them to live a meaningful life, so they can feel that their work is valuable and necessary and their abilities are special. The work done here is also useful to the employees themselves, because they can acquire countless new skills and make use of their individual creativity and ideas, with the result that they improve their self-confidence as well. Besides the basic restaurant services, the Druga Violina also organizes other cultural and art events on a regular basis. An example of this is the sale of individual artworks and utility items. These events give the employees with artistic talent the opportunity to express themselves in another way.