National Organization of the Spanish Blind
The Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE) is a non-profit public law corporation whose fundamental purpose is to improve the quality of life of blind people, people with residual vision and people with disabilities from all over Spain.
It has 72,231 members (as of December 31, 2019), of which 87% are people with severe visual impairment and 13% are totally blind.
This is a very active organization that participates in various national and international forums on blindness and disability, also promoting different initiatives to achieve its function. He is a founding member of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI).
It has a recognized state concession in terms of gambling for the commercialization of lotteries, which allows it to finance its social work and create jobs for its affiliates.
History of ONCE
Background and foundation
At the beginning of the XX century, the first street raffles organized by associations for the blind were born in Spain, a group that until then it was mostly dedicated to begging. Despite being illegal, from the 1930s these local raffles spread to different cities, especially Levante, Catalonia and Andalusia. Notable were the Association of the Blind of Catalonia —created in 1934 by the Republican Roc Boronat, then Barcelona City Council Charity Commissioner—, the Society for Mutual Aid and Defense of the Blind of Cádiz (founded by Antonio Calvo García, Alfredo Romero Cantero, Manuel Mera Gago, Emilio García Rincón y Vázquez, Silverio de la Pascua y Díaz de la Serna, Arturo Osiel Benazuli and Manuel Muñoz García), the Instructional and Protective Center for the Blind of Granada (founded by José Recuerda Rubio), and the Seville association La Hispalense.
The first attempt to create a national organization was the Hispanic Federation of the Blind, launched in 1930 by José Ezquerra. In 1931 the National Board for the Protection of the Blind was born, a state organization run by sighted people, heir to the National Board of Deaf, Blind and Abnormal People of 1910.
In 1937, in the midst of the Spanish civil war, Javier Gutiérrez de Tovar, president of Seville's La Hispalense, promoted the Bética Federation of the Blind, which brought together local associations from Andalusia and Extremadura, and which aspired to be the embryo of a federation At the same time, in Burgos, the seat of the coup government, the Falangist authorities and a group of blind people (headed by Fernando Martínez-Burgos, Primitivo Pérez and Mariano Ortega) had begun to work on the reconstitution of the Patronato de Ciegos, inactive since the start of the war. In January 1938, a delegation from the Betica Federation met with the Burgos group. They agreed to create a national organization for the blind, renouncing the charitable model of the Board of Trustees (a daily pension of six pesetas for the blind, paid for by the public administrations) in favor of the proposal of Gutiérrez de Tovar, defender of the economic autonomy of the blind. blind through the sale of lottery coupons.
After this agreement, on August 25, 1938, at the Congress of the Spanish Association for the Progress of Sciences held in Santander, Gutiérrez de Tovar gave a paper in defense of typhlology and the creation of a national organization for the blind, aimed at the social integration of the blind. The following day he presented it to the Government, obtaining the support of the general director of Charity, Javier Martínez de Bedoya, and the Minister of the Interior, Ramón Serrano Suñer. On December 4, a Ministerial Order dissolved the National Board for the Protection of the Blind. On December 11, Serrano Suñer presented the project for the creation of the National Organization for the Blind (ONC) to the Council of Ministers, where it was approved. On December 13, 1938, the feast of Saint Lucia (patron saint of the blind), Francisco Franco signed the founding decree of the ONC.
Dependant to the Ministry of the Interior, the National Organization of Blinds is created, which will group in it, obligatoryly, all the Spanish blind, for the purpose of mutual help and to resolve their specific problems. All existing entities, both cultural and labour, and other entities, will be merged in the Organization, provided that they deal with problems related to non-vidents.Article 1 of the founding decree (BOE 16 December 1938)
The same decree established the creation of the Superior Council for the Blind, a body dependent on the State and directed by sighted people, which throughout the Franco dictatorship supervised the ONC, managing its economic resources, approving its plans and appointing its National Head, being Gutiérrez de Tovar the first chosen for this position.
In 1939 the Regulation of the ONC was approved, which authorized its participation in the state gambling monopoly through the commercialization of the «pro-blind coupon» as an «exceptional and exclusive form of income for blind people unable to carry out a profession». The first raffle was held in Madrid on May 8, 1939. In the following years, the ONC began a process of integration of the different local associations, at the same time replacing the multiple existing raffles for the new coupon that, however, He held the draws separately in each provincial delegation.
ONCE during the Dictatorship
During the 1940s, ONCE opened its first schools for the blind and promoted labor inclusion with the creation of candy factories and industrial workshops. Gutiérrez de Tovar's disagreements with the Superior Council of the Blind led to its dismissal in 1948. He was temporarily replaced by Benito Hermida, the only sighted person in charge of the organization in its entire history, and in 1949 José Ezquerra was appointed National Chief. He held the position for a decade, betting on a mutualist model, which led him to close the factories opened in the previous stage.In 1952 the term Spanish was added to the name of the organization.
Labor insertion of the blind, beyond the sale of coupons, became one of the priority objectives of ONCE from the 1960s, with Ignacio de Satrústegui at the helm. To this end, vocational training centers and occupational workshops were promoted. The culmination of this process was the creation of the School of Physiotherapy (1964), the School of Telephony (1966) and the Center for Rehabilitation and Vocational Training (1966). At the same time, during this stage, libraries and braille printers were strengthened and audio books were promoted.
Democratization and growth
At the end of the Dictatorship, the organization began a convulsive process of democratization and self-management, promoted by an emerging group of young trade unionists, which culminated on January 19, 1982, with the holding of the first elections among the affiliates. Antonio Vicente Mosquete was the first democratically elected president. In the following years, an important process of modernization and democratization of ONCE was carried out, which went from being a charitable organization to a service institution. This change occurred in parallel with the business development of ONCE, thanks mainly to the reconversion of the Pro-Blind Coupon into a nationwide raffle, with a greater amount of prizes. This business initiative, launched on January 2, 1984, achieved great popularity, increasing coupon sales by 300%. In the following democratic elections, in 1986, Vicente Mosquete was re-elected, but this time his group, UP, achieved an absolute majority. Miguel Durán, agreed in this second legislature to the General Directorate of ONCE. Then a stage marked by two events began, which would take place a year later. The first, the premature death of Antonio Vicente Mosquete. The second, the resounding commercial success of the "cuponazo", which led the institution to multiply its income.
Accompanying this commercial success, ONCE expanded its field of action to include other disabilities other than blindness. In 1988 the ONCE Foundation was created for the cooperation and social inclusion of people with disabilities. A year later, the Foundation promoted the Fundosa business group, with the aim of generating stable employment for people with disabilities.
Starting in 1989, with Miguel Durán as general director, ONCE began an investment process in strategic sectors such as finance (through Finonce), industry (Indonce), services (Servionce), real estate (Surba) and communication (Divercisa). In this last sector, he developed notable activity, highlighting the purchase of the newspapers El Independiente and Diario de Barcelona, as well as participation in the creation of the news agency Servimedia, of the Telecinco television network and the Onda Cero radio station, the last two chaired by Durán himself. Most of these investments in the media resulted in high losses for ONCE. This stage ended in 1993, with the resignation of Durán, after discrepancies with the General Council. That same year, the ONCE Business Corporation (CEOSA) was created, with the aim of bringing together the different companies that the organization had been creating since 1989.
In the 2000s, coupon sales entered a progressive decline, motivated by the growing competition in the betting and lottery sector. This situation led ONCE to introduce new games on the market. In 2004 he launched El Combo, his first active game and in 2006 he created El Rasca, his first instant lottery. After being left out of the commercialization of the European Euromillions lottery (managed by the State), in 2012 it began the exclusive sale in Spain of its main competitor, the Eurojackpot.
In 2013, ONCE received the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in recognition of its work in the social integration of people with disabilities. On May 2, 2018, he received the Grand Cross of the Order of May 2, in the form of a Plaque of Honor. In 2020 the "Social Action" of ONCE was accredited as Honorary Ambassador of the Spain Brand, recognition given by the kings of Spain for having contributed significantly to the generation and strengthening of a positive image of Spain abroad.
Organization and operation
Since 1982, ONCE's highest governing body has been the General Council. Its composition, like that of the 17 territorial councils (one for each autonomous community), is elected by the organization's affiliates every four years. The General Directorate is the body in charge of managing and executing the agreements of the General Council.
The National Government supervises and controls the activity of the ONCE through the Protectorate Council, in which the Ministries of Health participate; Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda; Work and Social Economy; Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation; Tax authorities; and Inside.
Foundations
Under the umbrella of ONCE, several foundations have been set up, through which the organization carries out its social work:
- ONCE Foundation for Cooperation and Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (ONCE Foundation), created in 1988.
- Fundación ONCE del Perro Guide (FOPG), created in 1990.
- Fundación ONCE for solidarity with blind people in Latin America (FOAL), created in 1998.
- Fundación ONCE para la Atención de Personas con Sordoceguera (FOAPS), created in 2007.
ILLUMINATION
ILUNION is the group of companies of the ONCE and the ONCE Foundation, which share ownership with 47.5% and 52.5%, respectively. It was created in November 2014, the result of the convergence of the business groups belonging to ONCE and its Foundation, CEOSA and Grupo Fundosa, respectively. These companies were created with a double purpose: economic, to diversify ONCE's sources of income, and social, to facilitate the labor integration of people affiliated with ONCE in activities other than those of the organization itself.
ILUNION has more than 50 business lines, divided into five divisions: socio-sanitary (physiotherapy clinics, day centers, etc.), facility services (security, cleaning, industrial laundry, etc.) tourism (hotels, catering and leisure), marketing (convenience stores and insurance brokerage) and consultancy. It has a workforce of 32,000 workers, of which 35% are people with disabilities.
Social services
ONCE offers specialized services for people with blindness or visual impairment in multiple fields: education, employment, rehabilitation, leisure, sports, communication and access to information, etc.
Education
The ONCE educational intervention model is educational inclusion, so that more than 98% of students with visual disabilities in Spain attend ordinary schools. At the same time, the organization offers these students complementary care, depending on their specific needs. For this, it has five Educational Resource Centers (CRE), located in Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid, Pontevedra and Seville. ONCE also manages the University School of Physiotherapy, attached to the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Theater and music
The artistic groups of ONCE are stable groups of people, whose purpose is to favor the artistic development, coexistence and the integration of the participating affiliates. The Artistic Groups are of two types: Theater and Music and in each of them there are two levels. Those of Level I are those whose artistic quality is in the process of consolidation and those of Level II whose staging and repertoire have a notable artistic quality. This classification is made annually through a Technical Commission that evaluates their artistic level.
The participation of these musical and theatrical groups in national and international artistic fields is numerous. It is worth noting, among others, the participation of the Association "La Esfera" (Gijón), of the Territorial Delegation of Asturias, at the Zagreb International Festival (Croatia).
Another very important element to point out are the State Exhibitions that are held annually alternating each of the modalities, that is, Theater and Music. This event, which takes place in a different city every year, is an appointment where the artistic production of the best Groups of each modality is presented to the public.
Employment
ONCE, its Foundation and the Ilunion group employ 67,710 employees (data from 2015), of whom 56% are people with disabilities. Additionally, through third-party companies and entities with the support of ONCE, between 1995 and 2015, 101,119 jobs were created, 98% of which were for people with disabilities. During the month of January 2019, there were various demonstrations of a union type in Galicia, in the different provincial delegations, claiming a "stable employment".
ONCE Games
The National Organization for the Spanish Blind is, together with the State Lottery and Betting Society (SELAE), the only operator designated for the commercialization of state-level lottery games in Spain, according to Law 13/2011.
Lotteries are one of the main sources of funding for the organization's social work. The ONCE allocates 3% of the gross income from the sale of its different lotteries to its Foundation. The most popular and long-lived of these is the ONCE coupon, created at the same time as the entity. In the 2000s, new games of chance were introduced, such as active and instant lotteries.
Commercial activity is carried out by a core network of 20,000 vendors—people with blindness, severe visual impairment, and other disabilities—and a complementary network of more than 7,000 licensed stores (tobacconists, service stations, newsagents, etc.), in addition to the online gaming platform "JuegosONCE.es", created in 2013.