AL WAFA SCHOOL FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZES (LET’S TALK ABOUT DISABILITY) INFORMATIVE CAMPAIGN
It is customary each year that Al Wafa School for Capacity Development, which is an affiliate of Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services (SCHS), organizes an informative campaign to raise awareness of mental disability. The campaign, which would last until March 12, 2019, is organized under the theme (Let’s Talk about Disability), which has been the same theme of 29 Al Amal Camp organized in September 2018. The theme is an open invitation to all members of society to discuss and share experiences and knowledge about persons with disabilities, their issues, and rights in every area of life.
Dr. Samia Mohamed Saleh, Director of Al Wafa School, has confirmed that one of the main goals of the campaign is making efforts to continue raising people’s awareness of the latest methods related to discovering disabilities, evaluating a person with mental disability, and encourage them to discuss their issues and rights.
Dr. Samia has pointed out that the campaign targets several segments of the society such as school and college students, journalists and media, families of persons with disabilities, people working in the field of disability, and non-disabled persons.
She said, “The school designed the activities and workshops of the campaign to suit the targeted segments of the society in order to benefit more people. For example, Sharjah Archaeology Museum hosted a workshop about persons with disabilities rights. A number of parents of persons with disabilities and the people working in the field of disability attended the workshop. The school organized the same workshop in SCHS branch in Khorfakhan city due to its importance”.
In addition, Al Wafa School organized an informative program at Al Mamzar Beach Park. The program included several interactive workshops between persons with disabilities and non-disabled peers in which SCHS professionals directed some questions about mental disability to attendance and provided feedback about their answers, which corresponds to campaign’s theme.
Al Wafa School organized a training session for the teachers of Al Durrah International School in order to show them the proper way to work with children with disabilities who integrates into school.
The informative campaign of mental disability will continue until March 12. The school is planning to organize a conference entitled (Let’s Talk about Disability). It will target a number of journalists in order to introduce them to disability respectful language and persons with disabilities rights
Moreover, the school is going to organize a lecture for high school students to raise their awareness of mental disability on Monday and Tuesday, March 4 – 5 at Sharjah Cultural Palace. As part of the efforts made to raise people with non-disabled members’ awareness of mental disability, the school will organize a workshop under the title (How to speak to your child about disability).