Empower 35 students with disability in Tanzania

EMPOWER 30 STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY IN TANZANIA, REPORT NUMBER 11: MAIN ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF STEP BY STEP LEARNING CENTRE, SSLC, JUNE - AUGUST 2023.

  INTRODUCTION: This report will summarise the main activities and achievements from June - August 2023 vis a vis our vision, mission, goals and activities.

MISSION STATEMENT

SSLC’s mission is to promote the physical, intellectual, psychological and social development of each child through a holistic educational provision in an inclusive, empathetic, respectful, positive and stimulating environment so that special needs students and their families feel safe, accepted and loved. Staff use child-centered training and learning methods to encourage all children, including those having severe disabilities, to reach their maximum potential.

 VISION STATEMENT

SSLC aims to grow its capacity to provide a safe and stimulating learning and working environment for mentally and severely physically challenged students for as long as they need such support to progressively improve and learn appropriate Life and Job skills in order to achieve a degree of independence and dignity.

 MAIN GOALS

1. Twenty young students (age 6 to 17) with mental and physical challenges will access appropriate education, life skills training and appropriate therapy.
2. Ten young adults (over 18) with mental and physical challenges will get training in Job skills and thereafter employment, income, self-esteem, confidence and emotional empowerment.
3. Six Income Generating Projects (IGPs) will receive enough input to become viable and self-sustainable.
4. Fourteen Staff will receive support to provide compassionate, high quality holistic teaching, training and therapy to SSLC students.

 MAIN ACTIVITIES

1. Drawing an Individual Learning Program (ILP) for each student with input from his/her parents or guardians, then setting goals for each student
2. Conducting one on one, Hand over hand, Experiential - hands on teaching and training the young students in basic functional literacy and life skills
3. Providing professional therapies (Physiotherapy, Reflexology, Occupational Therapy and Speech Training plus Music, Dance, Art and Crafts.
4. Training and mentoring young adults on the job in the Income Generating Projects (IGPs): jewelry making from beads; gardening and Livestock keeping of cows, sheep, chicken, fish and bees.
5. Expanding the IGPs and professionalizing the job skills to make the projects financially viable and sustainable.
6. Providing administrative and support services to the program.
7. Collaborating with parents, community leaders and other similar programs in order to advocate for the rights of the disabled and sell the SSLC model.
8. Participating in advocacy activities like International  Autism, Down Syndrome. Cerebral Palsy and Disability days.
9. Raising funds from various sources to keep SSLC running

STAKEHOLDERS: For this period, the number of participants and beneficiaries remained the same.  We had a total of 272 project participants and beneficiaries (145 females and 127 males). These are students, staff, parents, guardians, caregivers, local partner organizations and a pilot music project team from Makumira University.

 JUNIOR CORE PROGRAM (AGES 3 TO 17)

The Junior Program remained full with 20 students, three are new students enrolled this year. They have varying degrees of physical and mental challenges: 4 with autism, 9 cerebral palsy, 3 Downs syndrome, 2 Hydrocephalus, 1 epileptic and 1 slow learner. Attendance remained steady and good. Over 80% of the students were able to attend school 80% and above of semester two. 80% and above of the students met the goals set in their Individual Learning Programs (ILPs) for semester two. 

 HOME BASED PROGRAM (HBP)

The main aim of HBP is to reach those students who are still kept at home and therefore do not attend school or any other program due to distance, difficult family circumstances and severe physical challenges.  Our four teachers follow them home on Fridays and solely focuss on each one of them, giving physiotherpy, reading stories, playing cartoons, music and writing and arithmetic for those who are able. When we have a physiotherapy team offering intensive specialist services and training usually in August, we invite them to attend together with their parents, guardians or caregivers.

This program faced challenges due to the rising cost of transport for the teachers which then became  an additional financial burden on SSLC. Three of the four caregivers (two single parents and a pastor) could not afford to contribute to transport costs so only one student who lives in a well funded orphanage remained on this program. Yet the benefits are enormous to these otherwise excluded children.

We are curently modifying this program into what we call SSLC Outreach Services (S.O.S) to make it appealing to parents or guardians who can pay but have not found suitable schools or programs for their children.This, if successful, will also double up as an additional source of income for SSLC.

 ADULT PROGRAM (AGES 18 AND ABOVE)

At the begining of June 2023, SSLC’s Adult Program still had 9 adult students most of them graduates from the Junior Program: 2 are living with autism, 2 cerebral palsy, 2 Down’s syndrome, 1 slow learner, 1 albinism and 1 Pfeiffer’s type I syndrome. There was still a vacancy for one young adult male student. One suitable young adult was assessed but his very poor single mother found it too daunting to involve him in the program. We are still making follow up.

The students learnt job/employment skills on the job in the Income Generating Projects (IGPs). These activities have been our most effective advocacy demonstrating that disability is not inability. They also enhanced the students’ independence and value to their families thus reducing the stigmatization and rejection that most of them experience. Each of these nine vulnerable young adults have now mastered one project which they enjoy and is potentially a business we will set them up with when they are ready to settle back in their communities. Five of them are ready to be employed by SSLC as assistants to the teachers and IGPs pending funding for their salaries. 

Two of the four IGP's - Tayloring and Jewellry making are thriving and besides being great emplyment skills for our students, they are also additional sources of income for SSLC. Livestock and farming are challenging because they involve care of living things, are labour intensive and there is competition for sale of their products. However, the students have had good nutrition and their diet supplemente from our own milk, eggs, vegetables and fruits. We have also met a standing monthly small order to supply Faraja Orphanage with these products! 

  ADVOCACY

SSLC was an active participant in the marches and celebrations in Arusha town on World Autism Day on 2nd April and  Downs’ Syndrome day on 21st March.

For this period, SSLC’s work continued to become a model of care and provision for this population. We mentored two teachers from a local Special Needs program in Babati; a Psychologist from Uganda and the head of  a children's program from a church in USA that wants to start including disability work in their program. 

 MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS OF JUNE - AUGUST 2023

• Wrote a proposal to Direct Aid Program (DAP) run by The Australian High Commission to East Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Hosted a Mission Team from a church in USA.
• Improved our fundraising ability on GlobalGiving plat form by attending all information and training sessions, teaming up with three other organizations coordinated by The Blue Atlas Organization to run a joint campaign for GlobalGiving's July Bonus Day.
• Modified our Home Based Program (HBP) to become SSLC Outreach Services (S.O.S)
• Continued to look for ways to improve production, marketing and sales of our Income Generating Projects' (IGPs) products
• Gave a memorable Grand Finale Music Performance at Makumira University Cultural Arts Centre on a big stage! This was a breakthrough for SSLC and three other participating schools.

 SUSTAINABILITY

SSLC is supported by donations, grants, student Sponsors and Volunteers.  The Income Generating Projects brought in some income. Competition for grants from big donors are getting more stiff. We have, therefore, come up with new strategies to expand our funding base:step up our fundraising on GlobalGiving, get more partners and student sponsors, attract more tour companies to bring tourists to buy our IGPs' products, develop the S.O.S to bring in additional income  and organise  more Volunteer and Mission team visits.  Lack of substantial funding for operations and infrastructure development remains the biggest threat to SSLC.

Submitted by Margaret Kenyi

Founder and Executive Director

Step by Step Learning Centre, SSLC.