Education
One hundred and thirty million children have no access to learning at all.
Projects cover:
- Access to quality education - increasing the opportunities for children to gain a good education, by helping with school fees, equipping schools and training teachers.
- Promoting parent and child participation in education
- Improving basic education infrastructure
- Out of school education - bringing learning opportunities to children and young people who are not in school in rural and urban areas.
- Adult literacy and vocational skills - offering training to adults to increase their opportunities to have a greater say in how their communities develop, and to gain employment and in turn improve their children's standard of living.
CASE STUDY:
Education is the key to a better future for disabled children in India
“We see the child, not the disability” Gama’s mother has a heart condition. Ever since she and her husband came to Singam Vihar - south of Delhi - in search of work, providing for her five children has seemed almost impossible. Three of her children are deaf and, like many parents she is struggling to make a living in the area. She never imagined that disabled children would be able to care for themselves or contribute to the family income.
With the help of Plan, in partnership with a local organisation CASP – ten year old Gama and his brother and sister have started to change the way the community sees them, and how they see themselves.The children attend a centre for disabled children, which Dr Vikas Grover, a qualified speech therapist helped to establish many years ago.
About 35 children with special learning needs and hearing difficulties attend the centre. Dr Grove’s approach has been instrumental in changing attitudes. Dr Grove explains:
'Our philosophy is to see the child, not the disability in a disabled child. Care of the children here is not about control, not about keeping them still and silent. We want to find out why they behave as they do and provide the right care for them'.
A team of dedicated and highly trained teachers, all drawn from the local communities, work with small groups of children, giving them the individual attention they need to learn and develop. When the centre was set up, the hardest task was raising awareness. Recalling one particular case;
'in one house I saw a small boy tied to his cot – his bed was more than where he slept. It was his living room, his dining room, even his toilet? Why? Because he was hyperactive and had serious behavioural problems. His parents just could not cope and did not know where to find help, now he comes to the centre and is learning well. He even helps the younger children. Sometimes he is noisy and disruptive and he certainly needs a lot of attention and patience but we understand and try to help him and help his parents cope with him too.'
The centre encourages parents to continue the care and one-to-one attention they receive at the centre during the summer holidays, but it is hard.Many families earn only 50 rupees per day (about 75 pence) to support their whole family and are too exhausted to have the time or energy.
But Dr Grover’s approach is gaining support – families are paying 10 rupees per month to send their children to the centre, and they are already seeing that this is an investment in their children’s future. Recently, parents have started coming to the centre to ask the staff questions about their children’s progress and what they can do to help. But as Dr Grover says,
“it is a long process and it takes time to persuade them that the centre cannot work miracles.”
Miracle or not, the centre is transforming the way disabled children are viewed. Children are encouraged to learn through creativity and the half-roofed, half-floored classroom is full of the children’s brightly-coloured artwork.
Through creative play, Gama had the chance to discover his talent as an artist, and to develop his drawing skills. At the moment, his favourite subjects are baby elephants and he already knows he wants to make a living as a designer or a commercial artist.
With the help of CASP and Plan, staff at the centre are looking for a suitable vocational course for him.
A few years ago it would have been impossible to think of a disabled child from the slums doing such a job – but with the help of the centre there is a good chance Gama will get his dream job.
|
