School Integration

School Integration/Re-integration Education Program

In 2006/7 the program will serve 115 disabled children and youths. Integration refers to children who begin school under our program. Reintegration refers to children who had some school before becoming disabled and resume school under our program. These children have been treated at the Healing Hands for Haiti Kay Kapab clinic. For example, they were fitted with an artificial limb or received surgery for a “club foot.”

Disability in Haiti is seen as disgraceful and disabled children are treated as outcasts. Children born with a disability are usually left at hospitals or abandoned on the street, while others, children and adults acquiring a disability, usually become reclusive. Children with a disability are usually denied an education since they are not sent to school or are removed from school if they become disabled. Recognizing this, HHH initiated the School Integration Program in 2001 assisting one disabled student to attend school. This organization realized that the number of disabled students wanting to access education was vast and no organization offered this type of program. The following year HHH offered 11 students scholarships to go to school. Since its inception, the program has steadily grown, integrating 37 students in school in 2003 and 2004. In the year 2005, we sent 75 to schools and last year, 2006, 116 children had this opportunity. However, the program’s success depends on support from foundations and sponsors.

Becoming literate and vocationally skilled is critically important for Haiti's disabled community. They need the skills necessary to survive as adults because of their inability to do unskilled manual labor. There is not a government subsidy program or "safety net" for them to meet their basic necessities.

Selection Criteria

In deciding how the limited resources available for this program are spent and who gets to be included the organization, we have developed a set of guidelines to ensure transparency and to be able to ensure that those most in need with the potential to benefit most are selected. The following are the criteria used:

• Participants are patients of Kay Kapab Clinic
• Participants are a member of a partner organization
• Participants are in the process of rehabilitation or have been rehabilitated
• Participants exhibit the potential to benefit from an education
• Parents complete the caregivers class

BUDGET

This year we expect to send 115 disabled persons from Port-au-Prince and several provinces to school. The prospective budget follows

Description of the role of the HHH staff

In order for this program to be successful, our school reintegration staff need to make school principals and teachers aware of the students’ special circumstances and needs and closely monitor students’ success in the schools. In addition, they speak with parents or other family members about the opportunities afforded by education and provide student candidates with psychological and other forms of therapy to improve self-esteem and help them realize their potential. At the beginning of the school year, they plan an Awareness Program in several schools.

The Awareness Program helps school personnel and the wider society see disabled students in a different light and welcome them into the school. Besides providing stakeholders with information on disability concerns, the Awareness Program also helps eradicate discrimination. The message transmitted to school officials is: “Being disabled doesn't mean you are useless.” The campaign utilizes posters, t-shirts, and television and radio spots to convey this message. Healing Hands also provides school supplies to those students not able to afford them, including a school bag, pen, pencil, geometric instrument, and notebooks. However, the students’ needs are usually far greater than what current funding could cover. A hot meal is included to ensure that students in the School Integration Program have at least one meal a day. The staff teaches a first aid and CPR course. The 38-hour course allows students to learn vital survival skills as well as prevent increased incidents of disability.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The School Reintegration Program staff closely monitors each student’s academic progress, attendance, behavior and attentiveness in school. If concerns arise, the staff meets with school officials, the student, and their family to assess the problem. If a student needs therapy or counseling, the staff provides this service.

The staff also evaluates the effectiveness of the Awareness Program in the schools with questionnaires. The results of the questionnaires demonstrate how the campaign helps increase school officials’ understanding of disability concerns; however, much more work is required. In the coming year, the staff plans to conduct the Awareness Program in more schools and businesses.