By Stephanie Schrempft | Public Health Specialist
In Afghanistan, services to support people living with disabilities remain extremely limited. Just 26 percent of children with disabilities were found to have access to primary school in Afghanistan’s National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment. Girls with disabilities are often double disadvantaged and even more vulnerable to exclusion and marginalisation.
Providing an education for children with disabilities has numerous benefits. Children can receive basic education skills – such as literacy and numeracy, but also crucial life-saving protection measures via health education, feeding programmes, and psychosocial support. Education offers a space for social interaction and learning as well as a means of protection from abuse such as forced recruitment and exploitation. The long-term effects of educating children from conflict areas include economic growth, better health, lower mortality rates, and peace and security.
Since 2004, our Rahyab School for Disabled Children has been providing basic education, including braille and sign language, as well as food and transportation for boys and girls with various types of disabilities from very poor families in Kabul. The school’s objective is to develop the children’s academic and employment potential, in addition to providing nutritional support.
A notable achievement of our school in 2017 was the introduction of a special class for children suffering from intellectual disabilities. The class comprises 24 students, all of whom have some form of intellectual disability. Bringing them together in one class ensures that the curriculum and teaching method are adapted to the children’s special needs.
At the end of last month, we held an exhibition in Geneva for members of the public, which presented a series of photographs by the Afghan photographer Rada Akbar, and was kindly sponsored by the GloriaMundi Foundation. We have included some of Rada’s photographs of the Rahyab School in this report; the rest can be found on the GlobalGiving project page.
The Mother’s Day Campaign is currently running on GlobalGiving until 13th May. At the end of the campaign, the top 5 projects with the most funds raised and most unique donors will get a bonus prize of $1,000, $800, $400, $200, $100, respectively. Additionally, there will be a 100% match for all new monthly donations started during the campaign up to $200.
Please help us to continue supporting disabled children in Afghanistan, either by donating directly, or sharing our work with family members and friends. We greatly appreciate your support.
Warm wishes,
The team at AfD
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
