Oldham Talking Newspaper

Volunteers at Oldham Talking Newspaper

Have you two hours to spare once every four weeks to volunteer to help a very worthy cause?

The Talking Newspaper for the Blind need your help. Based at a studio in the Falcon Business Centre, Victoria Street, Chadderton, the Talking Newspaper goes out to blind and partially sighted people in the Oldham area and is entirely run by volunteers.

Vounteer Anne Wright said, “Alas we have lost two of our producers and are desperately in need of replacements otherwise we are likely to have to cease publication of our discs.”

If you think you can help and want to find out more please phone Janet Whitehead on 0161 425 0224.

Background?

The Talking Newspaper in Oldham was founded in 1977 and currently has a circulation of approx 250 listeners.

The Association receives no grant aid from any source and is financed solely by donations.

What they do?

Volunteers record an hour long CD each week comprising material taken from the Oldham Evening Chronicle. We have the permission of OEC to use their news.

Occasionally, other documents may be recorded as special commissions.

Listeners

The CD is available to anyone who cannot read a newspaper as a consequence of a visual impairment or some other disability which prevents them from reading unaided.

The CD is posted out in a special wallet under the Royal Mail’s scheme covering ‘Articles for the Blind’, which means that no stamp is required. Listeners post back the CDs when they have listened to them under the same scheme.

Anyone wanting to receive the CD should contact the office on tel. no. 0161 627 0222. There is no charge for the service.

Volunteers

The association has approx 50 active volunteers undertaking a range of activities such as:-

  • editors – who read the Chronicle each day and extract items of interest
  • readers – who read the material prepared by the editors
  • producers – who record the news as it is read
  • copiers – who copy the listeners CDs from the master copy and take them to Royal Mail
  • supporters – who process returned wallets and maintain the listener database.

We record the news at the end of the week on a Friday when most of our volunteers do their work. We work on a 4- weekly rota so most volunteers work a couple of hours on a Friday, usually every 4 weeks.

For more information go to: http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/sites/otna/intro

The post Oldham Talking Newspaper Needs Your Help appeared first on Diggle News.

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