Background

THE SITUATION FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN EGYPT
People with disabilities are often isolated and marginalized, even so more in the Third World than in the West. In the first place, there are more prejudices here because of the general lack of knowledge about intellectual disabilities. A common belief among the poor is that an intellectual disabled child is contagious, that is if a pregnant woman would have any contact with a child with intellectual disabilities, e.g. Down's syndrome, the unborn child would `catch` the disease from her. Many families still hide away their disabled children, and then especially the children with intellectual disabilities.

Secondly, for a poor family a disabled child is a burden in an already hard situation. The children suffer from severe difficulties because of their class as well as because of their handicap. Their families have a hard time to get enough money for their daily bread, and it is impossible for them to have the sufficient time for their intellectually disabled children. For these families is it also very hard to find professional help for their children, both because of the costs and the accessibility. Even if the parents have the strength and time to search for professional assistance, it is extremely hard to get the right diagnosis. Often the parents wander from clinic to clinic without receiving any help, while the doctors are unfamiliar with the different diseases and disorders. Early intervention is of great importance when it comes to children with intellectual disabilities. Of course, these poor children do not have much of a chance to find help in time.

Although the Egyptian government founded governmental schools for disabled children around twenty years ago, the demand is still bigger than the supply. All the schools in Egypt – including the private schools –do only cover 5% (or even less) of the real need. Of the governmental schools only a few are intended for children with intellectual disabilities, and then only for those mildly mentally retarded. The percentage of children with intellectual disabilities is also higher in Egypt than in the developed world, probably because of the prenatal care (and the abortion rate) in the West.

Currently, there are no governmental schools for children suffering from multiple disabilities. Another problem is that the governmental schools have not enough with teachers for the children, which of course affects the results badly. The private schools are efficient, but naturally the poor families can not afford these quite expensive schools. Kayan Society for persons with special needs is therefore an alternative for these children, while they accept children to a lower cost or even almost for free.


Kayan Society for & kayan Center for Children with Special Needs

 
Kayan Society for Children with Special Needs was founded in 2002 as a center receives children with physical disability but in 2004 it was legally announced at the social affairs ministry. It was founded by group of experienced specialists in the field of rehabilitation of children with special needs. They aim at improving the life quality of those children. This was based on the firm conviction that intellectual disabled children should not be isolated from normal children. Step by step the center hired more specialized staff and accepted more children with special needs. Nowadays the society has 25 children with special needs in the morning specialized center ( as a nursery which provides a highly qualified services includes special education, physiotherapy, speech therapy, psychological assessment, IQ tests, music, computer, sport and fun activities. In addition to the afternoon center ( as an additional project for the community based rehabilitation programs ) It has more than 40 child. These children are classified in different groups; autistic, Down's syndrome, CP-children and slow learners.. For some cases there are no secure diagnoses. Many of the children are also multi-handicapped. Some of them suffer from severe intellectual disabilities.

OUR POLICY AND TEACHING METHODS
We are determined to change the situation for the persons with intellectual disabilities in Egypt. We believe that this work has to start with the children of our society. The idea of Kayan approach is to provides a good model of well trained disabled persons and success stories through a high qualified integrated team work.. This will hopefully lead to a deeper understanding for all normal and disabled persons . Our hope is that the society one day will accept all children; normal as well as those a bit different. We also hope that our society in the future will appreciate these persons as a valuable part of the world we all belong to.

The Kayan society is working with individualized plans for each child. A complete evaluation is made during the child's first month in the school. This evaluation includes IQ, language and other skills. Thereafter, a three-months-program is prepared for all activities at the school. This program contains the objectives for this child in each area, as well as how to reach these goals. After these three months a new program an evaluation is made and a new program is designed with the next steps for the child. All the therapists and special teachers are involved in this process. The focus is on the child from many different angles, and this method has proven to be very successful.

 

BACK