Social Protection for Children with Disabilities in East Jerusalem and South Hebron
Background:
"Teacher's Advisory Manual to Modify Students' Attitudes Toward Persons with Disabilities" is an initiative that was launched by the Advocacy and Empowerment Unit at QADER for Community Development in 2009. It included development of the teacher's advisory manual by QADER and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education to help achieve a number of goals directly related to raising the level of community awareness of disability. The initiative was implemented within the framework of a project implemented in partnership with AISPO and funded by the Italian Cooperation.
From 2009 to 2012, and as part of the memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Education and QADER related to the application of the manual and the ministry’s full commitment to circulating it to all public schools. The manual was revised, and a second copy was printed after the Ministry of Education issued a decision to circulate and generalize the manual to all schools in the country and use it as a tool to educate students and teachers about disability issues and students with disabilities starting from the 2012-2013 academic year in all governorates of the West Bank.
During 2013 and 2014, and within the framework of the "Social Protection Project for Children with Disabilities" in partnership with AISPO, and with the support of the Italian Cooperation, a new series of trainings on themanual was implemented in the directorates of East Jerusalem and South Hebron.
Project objectives:
- The application of the manual in schools in order to open new and broad horizons for teachers to help them create activities that are commensurate with the conditions and reality of the school and local environment around them.
- Helping teachers in schools to reinforce concepts and attitudes of school students towards persons with disabilities.
Target areas:
- East Jerusalem: Al-Eizariya, Abu Dis, Al-Zaim, Al-Sawahrah Al-Sharqiya and Arab Al-Jahalin.
- South Hebron: Yatta and its southern villages.
Project activities and outputs:
- Practical activities in schools on the teacher's advisory manual and it’s implementation, targeting teachers and students.
- Training activities on the teacher's advisory manual, targeting school principals, educational counselors, and teachers in languages, mathematics and science.
- Developing and performing a play about violence and abuse against children in some schools, followed by discussion by the audience on the topic.
- Training on Child Protection manual from abuse and violence against children and children with disabilities for the Palestinian Union of Social Workers and Psychologists, the Palestinian General Union of People with Disability, the open forum for people with disabilities issues, number of organizations working in the field of disability in Bethlehem and Hebron, and those who work directly with beneficiaries with disabilities in the Ministry of Social Affairs centers.
- Complementary training on the application of the child protection manual for each of the Palestinian Union of Social Workers and Psychologists, the Palestinian General Union of People with Disability, the open forum for people with disabilities issues, and the directorates and centers of Social development