Inclusive activities in Zahle

Saturday 24th January, the Children’s Council’s of Zahle, West Bekaa and Central Bekaa hosted an activity to raise awareness about disabilities. Invited were a local organization that works with people with disabilities and the Self Help Group and children from Nabil Badran Centre in El Buss. Both groups shared activities with the Children’s Council such as singing, dancing and teaching the Arabic sign language alphabet. During the break, children mixed together and some exchanged email addresses. The event was positive with many of the children from the Children’s council expressing their interest in meeting again and sharing in activities.

An article of the event can be found by clicking here.

It was a big step in building the bridge between children with and without disabilities.

Action plan for 2009

Today the SHG met to put together an action plan for the year. In order to raise awareness about hearing disabilities, the group has decided to approach 3 UNWRA run schools in El Buss, Rashadiyeh and Bourj a Shmeli camps in Southern Lebanon to run awareness sessions on Arabic Sign Language. They plan to teach a class each month on basic sign language to help foster communication and relationships between people with and without disabilities.

The group will split into two and each individual group will meet twice a month.

Group A will meet on the 1^st Wednesday of the month to prepare materials and the 3^rd Wednesday of the month to teach. Group B will do the same on the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesdays.

The plan for teaching is as follows:

Jan	Visit school
Feb	Abc
March	123
April	Name, age, grade, school, camp
May	Classroom objects
June / July / August	Off for holidays
Sep	Revision, days of week and month
Oct	Feelings
Nov	Verbs, nouns, letters
Dec	Exam

We will keep you updated as the plan unfolds.

Learning the Arabic sign language alphabet

Following the celebration of International Disability Day, World Vision’s Area Development programme officers took the activities facilitated by the Self Help Group from El Buss and ran them with children from their local area as a part of a World Vision National Children’s Council which celebrates the ‘Rights of the Child’.

Children from Saida participated in games and activities to raise the awareness of communicating without voice. They were very enthusiastic about guessing what the letters might be for the Arabic sign language alphabet, and learnt how to introduce themselves by name and age.
Two participants asked for extra sheets of words in sign language and wanted to know how to learn more, as every year they met people with speech impairments in Summer camps that they participated in. They told me also of a song in Arabic by Nancy Ajram, whose video clip is in sign language.

It was a positive sign to see children so openly accepting and willing to learn.

Even better news is that the SHG has been invited to the Bekaa on Saturday 24th to facilitate the activities with children there.

The ball has started rolling for 2009 and we hope it will be a year filled with inclusive activities which celebrate the uniqueness of our diversity.