Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities in Albania

Grantee: Association for the Protection of People with Mental Disabilities (MDPKAM)
Location: Elbasan, Albania
Grant Amount: $6,250
Project Dates: November 2007 - April 2008
Project Title: Including Children with Disabilities in Public Education
Project Details: MDPKAM is a parent advocacy organization working to raise awareness in the community on respecting the rights of people with mental disabilities. Through their project, MDPAKM works to obtain real, successful inclusion of children with disabilities and other marginalized groups in public education. This project was implemented in cooperation with the “Partners for Hope” office of World Vision, an international development organization. Building cooperation between local government, the Regional Directory of Education of Elbasan district, parents, teachers and specialists in this field, MDPKAM organized an awareness-raising campaign in Elbasan. Trainings were held with schoolteachers on ways of implementing the Individual Education Plan (IEP) as well as with parents of children with and without mental disabilities.  The project also involved the local media by hosting a television debate on disability issues in the community.  The trainings not only addressed issues of children with disabilities but also other children who came from marginalized or discriminated groups, such as school drop-outs, and children with learning difficulties or behavior problems. MDPKAM offered a series of workshops for parents, teachers and students in 4 schools to implement inclusive practices in education.
Results:

• 45 teachers participated in the workshop “Inclusive Education: a Challenge to All Schooling Communities, Teachers, Parents and Pupils”
• 37 Parents, teachers and students participated in the workshop “The Medical Model and the Social Model in Disability Treatment”
• 37 teachers and students participated in the workshop “Alternative Texts and Inclusiveness”
• 45 teachers participated in the workshop “Preparation of an Individual Educational Plan”
• 45 teachers participated in the workshop “Teaching Methods in Inclusiveness”
• 25 teachers and 5 students participated in the workshop “Pupils with Learning Difficulties in the Inclusive Educational Process”
• 28 children participated in the workshop “Children’s Rights”
• Created a climate of cooperation with the local government, the Regional Educational Directorate, parents, teachers, and specialists of special education to mitigate the difficult process of inclusiveness of children with disabilities and other vulnerable groups of children in need of inclusive education
• Changed attitudes of the children to focus on the values that they have (not in their deficiencies) to promote inclusive education, in which the children feel equal
• Raised awareness on disability issues and inclusion of all students through the puppet show "Space for All" and participation in extracurricular activities
• Provided a package of training models on inclusiveness for teachers
• Built a ramp and adapted two bathrooms to be accessible at the “Qamil Guranjaku” School.
• Provided prescription eye-glasses for 12 students