While operating as registered charity, the organization has a mission to work through  identifying itself with the disabled children who are poor and marginalized in society by providing resources that are otherwise unattainable to them; and with a view to give these beneficiaries the best opportunities to live their prospective lives to the full. The organization takes education as a key issue for its intervention works. Through quality education a disabled child can obtain respect of the inherent human dignity and self-worth that he/she fully deserves. The target groups and beneficiaries include not only disabled children but their parents and the community, special needs teachers, peer students, school principals, educators and school leaders. This is so because the organization strongly believes that with more emphasis on holistic interface of these actors we can foster quality education. As much as we appreciate the achievements of universal education that have been undertaken for many decades, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize that there are as yet huge pending tasks to be performed with respect to education for children with various types of disabilities. Being a relatively new phenomenon with in the field of modern form of education, special needs in schools needs a more refined approach to bring about best solution by incorporating qualitative steps to eliminate the barriers which the current system appears to be oblivious to acknowledge the presence much less address the problem. It is said, disability itself stems from interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their, the disabled children’s full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)

In order to address this complex issue requiring delicate balance between the interplay of different factors, one needs to have clear-cut strategy. Accordingly, the organization lays out the following core principles for executing the founding ideals:

• Inclusion: This is all about making sure that some segments of school age children are not left out as a result of little or absolute lack of special focus. Inclusivity means exerting every effort against direct or indirect forms of exclusion of a part of the society from the general education system merely on the basis of physical, intellectual and emotional difference or disability. Education must reflect the diverse needs of all of the pupils supposed to fully participate in the learning process.

The philosophy of inclusion in education among educationalists gathers momentum with the United Nations declaration on the same issue. In 1990, over 150 governments adopted the World Declaration on Education for All at Jomtien, Thailand. The World Declaration on Education for All has been described as a bold new direction in education. It declares that “Every person – child, youth and adult – shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs”.

Subsequently,  an Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal reaffirmed this commitment and adopted the six Education For All (EFA) goals that run to 2015: According to UNESCO report these goals are: six goals

1: Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
Goal 2: All children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to free, quality and compulsory primary education by 2015.

Goal 3: Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programs.

Given the overall scarcity of resources within the Ethiopian education system, one wonders if EFA is really reaching for all as the Millennium Development Goals approaches toward its end or even as we foresee the period immediate post-2015! The EFA goals stress that everyone should benefit from basic education – from young children in the family context and in pre-school programs, to primary-school children, to adolescents, young people and adults – through either formal secondary, technical and vocational education or non-formal including skills training.

In a nutshell, inclusion is first and foremost giving disabled children access to education by having them enrolled into regular schools located in their neighborhood. Secondly, Inclusion is about making sure that each and every student feels not only welcome but their unique needs and learning styles are attended to and valued. Regular schools in general and in particular teachers are expected to provide appropriate individualized supports and services to all students without the stigmatization that comes with separation. Despite contrary arguments against inclusion, at no time does inclusion require the classroom curriculum, or the academic expectations, to be watered down for the sake of accommodating disabled students.  On the contrary, inclusion enhances learning for students, both with and without special needs. Similarly, learning does not always happen in formal situations. It begins well before primary school and continues throughout life, families, those of disabled children also included, and communities must be encouraged not only to create environments that encourage inclusive education but get involved at all stages so as to ensure its relevance and quality.

• Integrated social life and education but not segregated school: The natural environment for every child to grow is in his/her parents’ home. The same should be true for the child with any form of disability. Disabled children should not be abandoned and instead they must live with their parents and family integrated with in the community. As practically as possible there should be all measures put in place to prevent isolation and segregation of children with disability from their community. This right is sanctioned by United Nations Convention on the Rights of The Child. The Convention puts this fundamental concept  in its preamble as follows:

“…the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community,

Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding …”

At the same time, the Convention also states that the child should be protected against all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian, or any other person who has the care of the child. To put this into context, neglect or marginalization of disabled children starts from the family of disabled child. Indeed, as we stated a little below in this document, different cultures have their own reasons to have caused them to marginalize people with disabilities who live with them.

More specifically, when we talk about integrated education of disabled children we mean first the social integration of special needs children at the family and community level. The children must be accepted as full members of the family they come from enjoying equal rights and privileges with their siblings. This integration has to start from an earliest life of the child’s physical and mental development. It is self-evident that child neglected by once own parents will have a below normal physical and mental development.

Once the child with certain disability becomes of age for school, he/she must get enrolled or placed in the general education classrooms with peers without disability. This is what we already described as inclusion which denotes more comprehensive program. Integration of disabled children involves things more than just taking seat in regular school but integration is a process where all students learn to accept individual differences. In an integrated setting, children are brought together and the non-disabled students will overcome their misconceptions about kids who have disabilities.  In other words, integration removes fear and rejection against children with disabilities. The kids who are integrated into regular school will have enhanced self-esteem, learn basic life skills; will have genuine capacity to develop friendships in their communities.  Long-Term Effects of Inclusion

However, interaction with nondisabled peers alone doesn’t help bring about effective education of children with disability. In order that they progress in their academic achievement, disabled children must get the necessary special support with specific focus to their individual needs by teachers and educators who are qualified and receive continuous training. In this case, the teachers and educators may adapt the regular classrooms by adding differentiated and appropriate treatment rooms known as special resource rooms for children with disabilities. Yet, best practice suggests that one must make sure that the students’ special need is met in a less restrictive or less segregated setting. Of course, the organization takes no direct part in educating the students with disability but is committed to play proactive role in the teaching and learning process of the students with special needs.

• Preserve the lineage of the local positive social values towards persons with disabilities and, at the same time, support the disabled children with the necessary human capital, technology and finance as the children exist within their families and regular schools.

Globally, several countries signed up to make the goals of inclusion happen, committing to put legal frameworks, policies and finance in place so that everyone, no matter what their circumstances, could have an education – one that is available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. The richest countries have also pledged to help make Education for All a reality by committing to principles of international cooperation towards those countries with fewer financial resources. Therefore, our organization takes this opportunity of goodwill by governments including that of Ethiopia where our charity will be based and work toward the realization of the United Nations mantra of education for all.

Social views of disability (beliefs, attitudes, stigmas, stereotypes, and myths and stories) are profoundly influenced by religious teachings. Historically, we notice broadly two types of societal attitude the world over towards disability.  We find those who glorify the disabled members and those who consider the identity of disability as matter of eternal moral damnation and regard the people as “poor pitiable objects.” r4disability: Brave Poor Things Arguably, the latter attitude although it was reported to have existed in 18th and 19th centuries Victorian England, it is, however, shared by many in Europe and North America. This attitude resulted in burgeoning of welfare activities   of several newly established welfare agencies that cater for disabled people usually in segregated settings that include asylums, sheltered workshops, more pointedly special or residential schools as they exist to-date. On the contrary Ethiopia belongs to the type of society with a pedigree of social view which instead of sidelining persons with disability brings them to the center of social attention and respect in the contour of society. Ethiopia is not only proud of its thousands of prominent scholars showcased in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Islamic clerics and muezzins but there are also abundant examples of visible integration of the ordinary disabled population into the tightly knit social fabric of the society. Even so, the present-day hard economic conditions on families, combined with disabled people’s own struggle for personal autonomy and quest for better means of livelihood  has brought with it marginalization of persons with disability including the disabled children. Our organization wants to plug this gap in the social fabric by giving direct financial assistance to the families of disabled children.

• Perform the charitable activities based on consecutive surveys to find education data as well as continuously develop mechanisms for monitoring impacts of the charity’s works:

It must be recognized, one of the most serious likely obstacles to progress is the absence of reliable and consistent data on educational efforts and educational outcomes. In other words, there is no good education statistics system. The founder has observed and outlined this problem during his exploratory business trip to the designated region – the town of Metu in western Ethiopia, December 2014: He acknowledges that progress is being made in keeping educational data although there still exist major problems. Having poor educational statistics means that it is difficult to get an accurate account of the facts. It makes the job of identifying problems and solutions almost impossible. Likewise, it is crucial to develop systems of indicators that may be of use to measure impacts. In short, we are operating in the dark when it comes to education facts and outcomes generally. If anything, information about education of children with special needs is even more difficult to come by.

• Start the charity’s work as a pilot project in Metu town Western Ethiopia and scale up to the rest of places in the country and across the surrounding region. It is the founder’s belief to start implementing the idea in relatively smaller place and with limited number of beneficiaries of the charitable activity. Therefore, the organization will start its services with a handful of children with various types of disabilities with their families who are identified to live in and around Metu town but who do not get necessary individual support in their education. The long-term plan is to expand the activity to cover other areas based on the well-assessed finding of the proposed pilot project.
• Specific Objectives

Based upon the above strategic principles of planning and full commitment of its staff, the organization has outlined the following goals and objectives to fulfill in and around its operating area.

• Work towards securing access to regular education for children with disabilities specifically in assisting the inclusion process by shoring up the disability awareness of Teachers, peer students, the educators, parents and the community.
• Support the training of teachers including in-service training with knowledge and technology transfer from North America and Europe where there are best practices in the field with respect to alternative modes and formats of communication and teaching techniques and materials to support persons with disabilities.
• Provide individual support for students with disability with mobility aids, devices and assistive technologies  required in their general education to facilitate effective academic and social development, which support include but not limited to: facilitate the learning of sign language for deaf students; and provide materials   and facilitate the learning of mobility skills and braille or alternative scripts/large prints for blind or visually impaired students; facilitate the elimination of physical barriers in schools and neighborhood areas for students with mobility challenges and at the same time provide wheelchairs or crutches for the same.
• Bolster up the families of children with disabilities in direct financial support so the families do not, for economic reasons, may not resort to such unnecessary practice of marginalizing their children which could be manifested in various ways as: hiding a child in dark the corners of house, abandonment, neglect and segregation which hinder the social integration and academic development of the children.

Management Structure

Practical considerations dictate that there are two levels of management structure distinctly organized to run the whole organization. One of the two entities is intended to operate as a locally registered charity organization in Ethiopia Oromia Region Ilu Ababora Zone Metu City Administration. This entity runs the day-to-day management of the organization. It will have a board of Management, a General Assembly and an Executive Director’s office with dedicated staff in each office and organ of management.

The founder of the organization resides in Canada North America. He seizes the opportunity living overseas far off the project area to coordinate a separate but connected entity which is in the process of being registered charity to help the activity in Africa specifically the would be established charity in Metu town Ethiopia. The North America based charity will oversee the activity of the Ethiopian based organization. Run by the founder together with Board of Trustees, the overseas charity has the following basic functions:

• Conduct research, collect data synthesize and analyze diverse and complex information, to prepare project write ups and apply for private and public grants (raise fund 😉
• design work flows and procedures that constitute project deliverables;
• Compile narrative and financial reports on performance of activities to donors and stakeholders
• Mobilize volunteers and other experts with affordable cost from North America who are willing to go and can teach or transfer their skills and expertise to relevant people in the field, the project area.