fyi.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Disability in Developing Countries Special Interest Group News
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 16:09:38 +1100
From: Joni Law <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Organization: AIHI
To: [log in to unmask]
CC: [log in to unmask]
Volunteer Opportunity in Assam, India
Shishu Sarothi Centre for Rehabilitation and Training for Multiple
Disability is based in Guwahati, Assam, northeast India. They have been
established since 1987. Their services include the following:
Rehabilitation
- Diagnostic clinic
- Outdoor service department (outpatient)
- Centre for special education
- Community based rehabilitation programmes in outlying rural areas
- Parent counselling unit
- Therapy unit
- Advocacy and public awareness creation
Training
- Regional resource centre for training on disability and related issues
- Ongoing 'in-service' staff training
- Regionally adapted baseline training courses
- Participation in regional & national level training courses
- Rehabilitation Council of India approved courses
- Nodal Centre for Zonal Advisory Committee
- Information centre for "National Trust" under Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment
They have a strong focus on cerebral palsy and have children from very
young right through until 17 attending their school. There is a great
Sensory Integration room, plenty of locally adapted equipment, loads of
teachers, helpers and parents around, and a great atmosphere. I think it
would be a great place to volunteer and there would be loads of
opportunities for mutual learning.
Shishu Sarothi would be very interested in volunteers with backgrounds
in either therapy, special education, inclusive education,
administration and fundraising, or disability generally.
They are seeking to push the agenda of Inclusive Education in the
surrounding schools and someone with a background in this would be great.
Ketaki Bardalai is the person to make contact with if you are interested
in volunteering.
SHISHU SAROTHI
Centre for Rehabilitation & Training for Multiple Disability
Off Ramkrishna Mission Road, Birubari, Guwahati 781016
Ph: 91-361-2478912/2470990 Fax: 91-361-2547395
Email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Contributions from Members
ACROD Members’ experience
Source: Margaret Gadd
ACROD Project Officer: Asia/Pacific Partnerships
[log in to unmask]
Novita Children’s Services (formerly Crippled Children’s Association,
South Australia)
Novita has been actively involved in the Marshall Islands in the
Pacific, through the work of Leigh Taylor, Manager of the Orthotics
Department.
Leigh is involved with the International Society for Prosthetics and
Orthotics (I.S.P.O.) Australian Outreach Committee. The I.S.P.O. is the
international professional body for Prosthetists/Orthotists worldwide.
The Australian Outreach Committee has focussed on the development of
prosthetic and orthotic services in the Pacific Islands. In August
2003, Leigh was selected as the I.S.P.O. Orthotics Trainer for an
eight-week training program in the Marshall Islands. This project was
funded by Australian Business Volunteers, and Leigh recently reported
the project’s positive results at the National Prosthetics and Orthotics
conference in Melbourne.
Since completing the Marshall Islands project, Leigh remains in contact
with the people that she trained via email and is their contact person.
As a member of the Outreach Committee she continues to have involvement
in the development of Prosthetic and Orthotic services in the Marshall
Islands, Kiribati, Fiji and other small Pacific Nations.
Novita Children’s Services is also developing links with the Society
for the Physically Disabled in Singapore (SPD). This organisation
initiated the contact through Novita’s website and both agencies are
exploring avenues for funding for a potential future working
relationship.
THE SPASTIC CENTRE GOES TO FIJI
The Spastic Centre was very excited to be invited to submit a tender
for an AusAID project to provide training on cerebral palsy to Teachers
of students with Physical disabilities in Suva in May this year. This
project was part of the AusAID In-country Training (ICT) project: Fiji
Islands whose purpose is to provide training or skill development within
the country with a local counterpart trainer.
With the support and guidance of the Learning and Development Team to
prepare the tender and then to write the training around the teacher’s
learning goals, an Occupational Therapist and Physiotherapist departed
one month later to deliver 9 days of training.
Children with disabilities in Fiji have extremely limited access to
disability services and the number of children with Cerebral Palsy is
growing due mostly to the fact that there are more births in hospital or
health centre and more pre-term or medically frail babies are surviving
with closer medical monitoring and care. The teachers reported a higher
number of students with hemiplegia attending special schools than other
types of cerebral palsy. It is likely that there is a significant number
of children in more remote areas who have other types of cerebral palsy
but access to special schools and transport is difficult.
Most children with disabilities are cared for by their families but some
students from the Outer Islands stay in a Hostel close to the school
during term time and sail home to their families for holidays. Equipment
such as paediatric wheelchairs, supportive seating, paediatric mobility
aids and other basic equipment is mostly limited to second hand
equipment that has been acquired through various charity groups.
Thirteen teachers from Special Schools participated in the training,
with a number having travelled to Suva from the north and west coast of
Vitu Levu, the main Island, and others travelling from the Outer
Islands. All had completed the two year teacher training but had
received no special education training. They describe their role as
“providing everything” due to the fact there are few rehabilitation
assistants, no physiotherapists working in disability and no
Occupational Therapists or Speech Pathologists at all in Fiji.
The training days were busy and based around the learning goals
identified by the Teachers beginning with “What is Cerebral Palsy”
through to Techniques for Care giving such as Mealtime Assistance and
Safe lifting, through to Adapting the Classroom Environment and
Techniques for Enhancing Learning and Participation. The teachers
enjoyed practical tasks and demonstration in addition to lecture style
theory and lots of group activities.
All of the Teachers were highly motivated to utilize some of their new
skills and knowledge back in their classrooms and will continue to work
on the final module of their training which was “Working with Families”.
The closing ceremony was indeed a great occasion with the chief guest,
Deputy Minister for Education, the Minister for Special Education and
Aus AID In –country Training Coordinator as well as Mr Frank Hilton who
is known by all as “The Father of Special Education” in Fiji. The
traditional Fiji benediction and Farewell song completed the event.
TSC hopes to respond to other tender requests from AusAID to follow on
from this training, particularly to support the teachers in their
partnership with families.
DEAF COMMUNITIES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
As part of Deaf Children Australia’s Youth Awards program in 2003, four
young deaf women were sponsored to visit the remote Sepia region of
Papua New Guinea (PNG) to learn about different deaf communities. Chief
Executive Officer of Deaf Children Australia, Damian Lacey, chaperoned
the women on their visit.
“Deaf education in PNG is at a similar stage to when Fredrick J Rose
set up the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution [now Deaf Children
Australia] back in 1860,” said Mr Lacey of the experience. “Health and
basic audiological services are provided, but equipment and skills are
limited.”
A majority of the students in the Wewak Deaf Unit were male, and their
language skills were varied. The sign language they used is roughly
based on Auslan, but it is still in its early stages of development.
“The trip showed that it is worth remembering that in Australia we are
very lucky to have access to the best education and technologies. In PNG
most deaf people don’t even have hearing aids. Those who are lucky to
get one often get ‘a hand me down’.”
The visit provided the deaf community of PNG with the opportunity to
communicate with other deaf people. “It is believed that our visit was
the first time deaf people from PNG had interacted deaf people from
another country. This was an important historical experience for both
the girls on the trip and the people of PNG.”
Recently, Deaf Children Australia has been able to repay the
hospitality and generosity that was shown by the people of PNG.
Augustine Koroma, who coordinated the visit in PNG, visited Deaf
Children Australia in April. Augustine is in Australia for the remainder
of the year studying for his Masters in Special Education at Melbourne
University.
“When Augustine returns to PNG at the end of the year we will provide
ongoing support to a small team he hopes to set up to document the sign
language used in PNG. This will be a difficult task given the 700 plus
spoken languages in use in PNG! We are offering our technological skills
to enable the production of a PNG sign language dictionary”.
For further information about Deaf Children Australia visit,
www.deafchildrenaustralia.org.a <http://www.deafchildrenaustralia.org.au>u
YOORALLA’S LINKS WITH INDIA
The Yooralla Society of Victoria has been working in partnership with
the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy in Bengal, India for approaching
three years, with the aim of producing prototype voice output
communication aids and appropriate, culturally specific software for
people in the region who have a significant communication impairment.
Recently, the partnership has linked in with the School of Communication
Sciences and Disorders at the University of Sydney, providing an
opportunity for even greater growth and development in the program. The
agencies initially established links through their involvement with the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(ESCAP). This has since grown into a strong friendship and effective
alliance with growing benefits for staff and consumers. Some IICP
staff have been able to visit Australia and Yooralla staff are actively
involved in information exchange.
The project is largely funded through a staff payroll contribution
scheme with a high participation rate. Yooralla has also recently sent
a specialist staff member to provide short-term assistance to a
children's orphanage in Vietnam.
CARA’s WORK IN THAILAND
Community Accommodation and Respite Agency Inc. (CARA), part of the
Spastic Centres of SA network, has formed a close friendship with the
Foundation for Children with Disabilities (FCD) in Thailand.
FCD is small non-government organization, based in Bangkok, which
provides a range of support, referral and advocacy services for families
of children with severe disabilities.
With the help of a grant from AusAID, CARA and FCD have been working
together for nearly 2 years to develop culturally-appropriate respite
services for Thai families. Several CARA staff have had the
opportunity to work with FCD in Thailand, and the grant funding has also
enabled CARA to bring Thai staff and parent representatives to Australia
to learn more about respite services in our country.
Sharing expertise and knowledge has had many mutually beneficial
outcomes and reinforced awareness that the needs of families of children
with disabilities are the same the world over.
As an extension of the original project, CARA is now also training the
nursing team at Bangkok’s Sirindhorn National Rehabilitation Centre in
how to train parents and other carers in disability health care
procedures. This will ensure the safety and sustainability of respite
services at FCD and provide opportunities for the Sirindhorn Centre to
support other disability service providers in Thailand in the future.
Professional Development Opportunity at AIHI
International Adolescent Health
Melbourne, 14 - 18 February 2005
This five-day course is suitable for health program planners,
development workers, doctors and other health practitioners,
particularly those with involvement in youth programs. It can be taken
as a short course or for academic credit as an elective within a
postgraduate level course in Public Health, Social health, Adolescent
Health or Development Studies.
The objectives are to:
o critique a number of frameworks used to address adolescent
health needs;
o incorporate the lifecycle approach into public health
programming for young people;
o develop strategies for effective engagement of young people
and their communities to improve adolescent health and
welling; and
o engage stakeholders in health promotion and advocacy for
adolescent health.
The course provides a comprehensive picture of emerging health issues
for adolescents, focusing on young people from developing countries.
Areas to be covered include: key stages of adolescent health and youth
development; adolescent needs assessment; sociocultural issues in
adolescent health; key issues in adolescent health including HIV/AIDS,
alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; mental health; nutrition; sexual
and reproductive health and risk-taking behaviours. I
For further information and application, please contact:
Joni Law
Program Officer--Education and Training
AIHI
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 8344 9123
Joni Law
Program Officer--Education and Training
Australian International Health Institute (AIHI)
The University of Melbourne
VICTORIA 3010, Australia
Tel: +61 3 8344 9123 Fax: +61 3 8344 9130
Email: [log in to unmask]
AIHI website: www.aihi.unimelb.edu.au <file://www.aihi.unimelb.edu.au>
FORTHCOMING SHORT COURSES at AIHI:
International Child Health 17 - 24 Nov 2004
Harm Reduction: controlling HIV in drug users
22 - 26 Nov 2004
International Adolescent Health, 14 - 18 February 2005
Please contact me for details.
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