By Amy Baty-Herbert | Project Coordinator
Dear Project Supporters,
Thank you for your continued support that is making an impact for Autism therapy in Senegal. Below is a field update from the Dakar Team.
Dear followers,
Best wishes to all and happy holidays to all from ABA Senegal!
During the holiday vacation, our students had two weeks off from school (per the French system that is active here in Senegal). During this time, we increase home activities for most of our students. For students receiving only school support, we do some extra-special activities at home with their school shadow. Sometimes it's not possible with everyone's travel plans and family structures, but we always do our best to keep in contact and practice our skill goals during each 2-week break.
And now for some news: After the very lovely holiday season of 2019, ABA Senegal received a concerning email from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). The BACB is the only current certification body for ABA, our model of therapy and hundreds of ABA therapy supervisors all over the globe have been certified by their standards and via their examinations, which are available in 13 languages and offered in dozens of countries worldwide. The BACB announced on Dec 31 st 2019 that it will cease certifying individuals outside of the United States and Canada in the near future. It will also run exams in only the English language. This news will have a huge impact on ABA Senegal and its employees, whose project core included offering a training pathway to Senegalese individuals up to the supervisor level. We are now in contact with other ABA entities across Africa to re-organize our collective plans and trajectories. This may mean that Africa will need to develop its own certification board (or boards). Quality control will be a major factor.
For now, ABA Senegal will continue running as a service for local families and as an employer to local staff. The value of these activities should not be minimized in the shadow of this news. We hope to continue our plans as a training center and overcome this new barrier in partnership with other ABA providers throughout Africa. Despite this bump in the road, we still remain optimistic about the difference we can make for the autism community in Senegal.
Sincerely,
The ABA Senegal team
Your support has made a difference for students with autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. We encourage you to start a monthly recurring donation here to continue helping students with Autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. Even a few dollars a month will go a long way. Please also share this with your contacts and invite them to consider supporting this ongoing project.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at GlobalGiving@developafrica.org.
Warm Regards,
The Dakar Team & Develop Africa Team
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