Country
Senegal
Import/Export
Topic
Zero Project 2019/20
Transfer Model
Status
Humanity & Inclusion is an international development NGO based in France. In 2012, the country team in Senegal initiated the Promoting the Full Participation of Children with Disabilities in Education (APPEHL) programme, which works at multiple levels with individual children and families, with teachers and schools, and also in influencing policy regarding Inclusive Education. The programme, which is funded by public funding agencies, has trained over 2,000 teachers and supported 45 schools to be more inclusive.
You can discover their presentation at the Zero Project Conference here
Solution
For many children with disabilities in Senegal, mainstream schools are physically inaccessible, and their teachers do not receive the necessary training to support them.
Programme staff work to identify primary school children with disabilities in rural and urban areas and refer them to health specialists. Identification of out-of-school children is done through awareness-raising campaigns run by local disabled peoples’ organizations, along with home visits.
Staff work with the children and their families, and take on the management of the social, educational, and health needs of those children who require the most support. To date, more than 1,500 children have received assistance, for example, with glasses, assistive devices, and physiotherapy. In addition, 224 parents of deaf children have been trained in deafness and sign language.
The APPEHL programme also offers Inclusive Education training sessions, which have been delivered to over 2,000 teachers. This training uses the existing expertise of teachers in the specialist school system so that their knowledge can be used to make the wider school system more inclusive.
Furthermore, APPEHL works to improve the physical accessibility of schools and provides adapted learning materials for children with disabilities in mainstream schools.
Impact
More than 2,000 children with disabilities have been identified and enrolled by the project between 2015 and 2017
More than 2,000 teachers have been trained on Inclusive Education
Transfer Model
The practice has been replicated by other NGOs and associations working in various regions of Senegal, done in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and its decentralized bodies. Future plans are to further extend the programme to all regions of the country.
