Cablegate: Final Report: Democracy Small Grant for The
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SANAA 000102
SIPDIS
FOR NEA/PPD: DMACINNES AND JDAVIES, NEA/RA:BKEARY,
NEA/ARP: MMILLER, NEA/PPD: TROBERTS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KDEM KPAO AFIN KWMN PHUM YM HUMAN RIGHTS
SUBJECT: FINAL REPORT: DEMOCRACY SMALL GRANT FOR THE
HANDICAP REHABILITATION SOCIETY FOR CHILDREN
REF: A) STATE 187026 B) SANAA 5295
1. The Handicap Rehabilitation Society for Children has
concluded its awareness mobile sessions project titled
"Inclusion of Disabled Children in Public Schools".
2. The PAO and PAS attended the Handicapped
Rehabilitation Society opening ceremony for its project
"Inclusion of Disabled Children in Public Schools" in
Aden city. This project worked on bringing awareness
among school children and educators about the rights of
all children to education. In his remark, PAO Balian
talked about disabled children rights and the need to
include them as full participating members of society.
3. PAO and PAS attended three awareness sessions in
three schools in Aden. The first awareness session was in
a girls' high school. We met with the school manger who
was happy that such activity is taking place in her
school. About forty girls attended the awareness session
which started with one of the NGO trainers speaking about
the meaning of disability. The speaker talked about
disabled children and the need to respect them as human
beings capable of learning and participating in society.
The speaker also distributed stories written by disabled
children about their struggles to be included in society.
Girls and boys of different ages wrote the stories, some
wrote about their success in overcoming struggles in
their life as handicapped children and some wrote about
their continuing struggle to gain respect among their
family and peers. The stories were painful yet
courageous.
4. Students read three stories and had the opportunity
to comment about their impressions. They shared their own
stories of handicapped children in their neighborhood,
among their families and in the streets.
At the end of the session, the speaker distributed papers
and colors for the girls to draw pictures of the session
subject.
The drawings were collected and will be added to a new
printout along with the handicapped children stories.
5. The observation of the PAO and PAS of the session was
very good in terms of materials used, however, the
speaker was not using a participatory approach and was
not well organized in her thoughts.
6. PAO and PAS sat with the speaker and the NGO head
after the session and suggested better participatory,
engaging methods for her to use in her next session which
was the same day.
7. The speaker did a much better job in her second and
third sessions where she used more interactive dialogue.
Student response was much more positive than the first
session.
8. The overall result of the project was good. It
enhances children's knowledge of their handicapped peers
and makes them aware of the struggles these children face
in their daily life. This project can be considered a
good civic education initiative that can be used on a
larger scale in schools.
HULL