Children of Quneitra Needs a Healing Touch
Syria, Education, 11/15/2002

"After war, the children of Quneitra are witnessing the horror of destruction around them, specially the children close to the line of control. One can see the destroyed building, once used to be standing in proud, the Golan hospital was providing life to many patients and now begging for its own life," said UNICEF's program coordinator Narinder Sharma.

He explained that children and women are the main sufferers in any type of war and Quneitra is not an exception. Scattered landmines and unexploded ordnance continuously pose a danger to the children and shepherds in the area. This adds to the agony of community of Quneitra, which has been suffering from aftermath of 1973 war all these years.

Various ministries of the government of Syria along with the governorate of Quneitra have been engaged in a tremendous effort to provide development opportunity and infrastructure to the local community at various levels.

UNICEF in cooperation with partners also provided a helping hand to the community of Quneitra. Seven safe playgrounds were constructed in various villages. A well focused landmines awareness campaign was conducted within schools, youth and women with the cooperation of ministry of education, General Women Union and Pioneers Organization. Agriculture Extension section of Ministry of Agriculture staged dramas on landmine awareness and staged at various villages in Qunaitra.

Our recent visit to Quneitra was to initiate the project to establish a center for disabled children. There are 302 children with various types of disabilities like cerebral palsy, mental retardation, limb paralysis and other types of disability.

While UNICEF was working with the local community to construct safe playgrounds for children and to organise a mine awareness campaign, community brought to notice the plight of disabled children and their parents. Hence, the necessity was felt to open a center for disabled children and UNICEF started discussing the possibility with partners.

UNDOF (United Nations Disengagement and Observation Force) Force Commander Gen. Bo Wranker and his team has been providing a technical support for mine awareness campaign, furthermore they offered to cooperate with UNICEF in providing assistance for disabled children. Mrs. Wranker has mobilized resource in providing financial and material support to establish this center. Members of UNDOF contingent have provided so far 34 wheel chairs, 30 hearing aids and 4 pair of crutches.

Once this center is functioning, initially will provide assistance to 50 disabled children, counseling, training to parents and caretakers of disabled children. There will be an effort to work with the community through training, seminars, and participation to create an atmosphere of "disabled child friendly" in Quneitra. We shall be working together in creating an environment where "the child's right to special care and the steps taken to ensure the extension, subject to available resources, to the eligible child and those responsible for his or her care, of assistance appropriate to the child's condition and to circumstances of the parents or others caring for the child." According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, "a mentally or physically disabled child should enjoy a full and decent life, in condition which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance and facilitate the child's active participation in the community."

Some of the disabled children in Quneitra center will be included after initial training, in the formal education system according to their disabilities.

Recently, in Syria a pilot project for "inclusive education" is implemented now in Syria in 4 schools and one KG, with the aim to promote "inclusion of children with disabilities into regular schools." This project is implemented by Ministry of Education (MOE) in cooperation with UNICEF, UNESCO, Karim Rida Said Foundation, Save the Children-UK, and Save the Children-Sweden. A National Task force is created to follow up and support the implementation of this project, and to ensure the successful expansion to other schools after the evaluation phase at the end of this scholar year. The expansion will include some of Quneitra schools next year, so the children in Quneitra disabled center will have a chance to enjoy their right to go to the nearest school to their home.

"Let me mention that 'Inclusion in education' is an unending process. It involves increasing the participation of learners in and reducing their exclusion from, the cultures, curricula and communities of local learning centers. It requires the restructuring of the cultures, policies and practices in schools so that they support the learning and participation of the diversity of students in their community. A concern with overcoming barriers to the access and participation of particular students may reveal gaps in the attempts of a school to respond to diversity more generally. Diversity is not viewed as a problem to be overcome by attempting to separate students into groups, homogeneous in background and attainment. Diversity is seen instead as cause for celebration and as a rich resource for teaching and learning. All students are seen as having a right to an education in their locality. Inclusion is concerned with fostering a mutually sustaining relationship between schools and communities inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society."

Inclusive education has evolved as a movement to challenge exclusionary policies and practices and has gained ground over the past decade to become a favored adopted approach in addressing the learning needs of all students in regular schools and classrooms. International initiatives from the United Nations, UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank and elsewhere jointly add up to a growing consensus that all children have the right to be educated together, regardless of their physical, intellectual, emotional, social linguistic or other condition, and that inclusion makes good educational and social sense.

Today an increasing number of countries are working towards a more integrated approach to human service development. The use of available human and financial resources can be maximized through cooperation between the public and private sector, and by addressing exclusion issues within an inter-sectoral perspective of collaboration. Within this new scenario of international and inter-organizational collaboration, the idea of inclusive education is now influencing reform in the education system as well as the development and restructuring of schooling in many countries.

Attaining the universally accepted goal of Education For All has been, and remains, one of the most daunting challenges facing the global community today. It is estimated that several hundred million children and youth are still denied access to even the most basic education necessary to develop their potential for becoming independent and contributing members in their contemporary communities, societies and cultures.

Reaching the unreached, all those children and youth excluded -- for reasons of disability, poverty, geographical remoteness, political and economic turmoil, or deeply rooted gender and racial discrimination -- has now been accepted as a priority in virtually all countries. Developing countries, for which this endeavor is especially challenging, are being strongly supported by the international development community in the effort to provide Education For All -- the key to sustainable social and economic growth.

In all these areas Syria is making tremendous efforts and have achieved a considerable success while proceeding on the progress path.

Advocating a sincere call for peace and building a bright future for children Sharma concluded "Let us not forget that to destroy infrastructure it takes minutes, but to build, it takes years, and it takes centuries to heal the wounds."

Previous Stories:
  Rolin Wavre: The ICRC is in Syria to restore family links broken because of occupation of the Golan;   (11/13/2002)
  The British Red Shoe to be displayed in Damascus, Aleppo   (10/16/2002)
  Aleppo hosts its third Terry Fox Run for cancer research; Damascus Run   (10/11/2002)
  Some 31 killed in collapse of old buildings in Aleppo   (10/3/2002)
  Al-Assad inaugurates first Arab virtual university   (9/3/2002)
  Damascus hosts a seminar on e-class concept learning   (3/11/2002)
  A Presidential decree to establish private universities in Syria   (8/18/2001)
  UN facts finding commission inspects Israeli violations in the occupied Golan   (8/6/2001)
  Pope John Paul in Quneitra prays for peace, plants olive tree   (5/8/2001)
  Quneitra, the capital of the Golan   (5/7/2001)
  Marriages and divorce rates in Syria   (1/27/2000)
  More than half the Syrian population under 19   (1/27/2000)

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