Innovations and good practices and key strategies for mentoring and packages for children with special needs
Mentoring
A mentor is a trusted adviser of somebody with little experience (Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary. A.S. Hornsby, 1995). A mentor is a more experienced person, (in relation to the person being mentored), looked up to for inspiration and encouragement; committed to the achievement and excellence of another. A mentor is willing to share experiences, skills and knowledge with someone who needs to develop theirs. The mentor is a friend, confidant, a guide, a teacher, parent figure and adviser willing to empower and develop another person. Usually, a mentor is older and more experienced than the mentee. However it’s important to note that the mentor too often learns from the mentee especially when they are in the same age group. Mentees can also provide valuable guidance and encouragement.
Mentoring is a conscious and deliberate effort by an older (normally), mature and more experienced person, to guide and model a younger inexperienced person so as to bring them to a higher level of maturity in either all or selected aspects of life.
2.1 The FAWEU Mentoring Programme
FAWEU is committed to ensuring that women are an integral part of the intellectual and technical resource base of the country. In order to achieve this; the gender gap in the education sector must be eliminated at all levels.
Girls are often not encouraged to achieve in school or to pursue their dreams. In many cultures, girls learn from an early age that their needs and wants are second to those of parents, brothers, and husbands. Instead of hearing positive messages, they are often discouraged against setting high goals. FAWEU is thus committed to develop such meaningful relationships between girls and mentors that have already been or will be identified to enable the girls aspire for bigger dreams.
Levels of Mentoring
· One to one; this involves allocating a girl to a mentor for a given period of time. These include FAWEU models of excellence, FAWEU members or upcoming young professionals.
· Peer mentoring; allocating girls to former FAWEU scholarship beneficiaries at tertiary level, or older girls in the same school.
· Group mentoring by models of excellence, and women achievers at national, district, school and community levels.
Mentoring can be through periodic meetings between mentor and the selected girl, letter writing, talks, discussions and lectures, workshops, electronic mentoring, use of documented materials, exposure visits and exchanges.
2.3 The role of a Mentor
The role of a mentor is to be a friend who builds a mutually caring, loving and supportive relationship with the girl. The mentor’s roles therefore are;
· Act as role models
· Help girls cope with changes at school, at home or with their personal or physical development.
· Serve as liaisons between mentees teachers, parents or caregivers.
· Assist girls in dealing with problems (academic, with friends, family etc.)
· Promote girls’ confidence and self-esteem.
· Provide resources for girls.
· Provide advice in making decisions.
· Organize activities for girls, such as career day or an HIV/AIDS discussion
· Expose girls to new ideas, places, or people
· Advocate for girls’ education and girls’ rights; encourage the girls, their parents, and community members to promote girls’ education.
2.4 Objectives of Mentoring
Ø Positive impact in the mentee’s life.
Ø Enable and empower the mentee to accomplish their goals and dreams.
Ø Foster long lasting friendship between the mentor and the mentee. Both parties usually agree on certain guidelines for their relationship which can last for several years.
Ø Provide the mentee with information and guidance that allows him/her to make good decisions.
2.5 Anticipated benefits of Mentoring
When mentors empower their mentees, they instill self-esteem and self-confidence in them. The mentee becomes empowered and motivated to do well and accomplish his/her goals. In other words, the mentee begins to believe in his or her abilities and isn’t afraid to meet new people and try new things or ask for help when she needs it. Mentors play an important role in encouraging girls to have goals and helping them achieve them.
A good mentor advocates for the mentee at school, at home and in the community, shares experience with the mentee, talks on a level that can be understood by the mentee, shows interest in mentee’s life, activities and thoughts, respects the mentee’s ethnic and religious background, acts a positive role model, refers mentee to other people or resources when necessary, helps develop mentee’s strengths and skills, respects the mentee’s decisions, helps mentee find solutions to her problems, empowers mentees to make good decisions and supports her, encourages her in her school work and goals, respects mentee’s confidentiality, doesn’t judge, asks questions and listens.
The above statement describes what every girls needs because as girls grow, they go through many trials, challenges and confusing moments. They get to an exciting stage that demands so much in all aspects of life that in most cases they may lose focus of what they want in life. At this still all they need is a mature and older person who will be objective and guide them through this experience.
Every girl needs a “good mentor” for a caring, loving and supportive relationship and to keep her focused on her goals and dreams in life.
Note: FAWEU has resource training guidelines/handbooks for mentoring.
3.0 Introduction to innovations and strategies for children with special needs
The subject of special needs education is highly charged both emotionally and politically with no perfect answers and no simple solutions. It must be understood that no two children with special needs are alike although even well intentioned professionals seem to have a one-size-fits-all mentality when it comes to educational strategies for children with special needs. In discussing educational strategies and innovations for children with special needs we look at approaches that would ultimately benefit the child and would enable him/ her to seamlessly integrate into society and be accepted and respected as a productive citizen. Some of the special needs that UNGEI partners may encounter include; hearing impairment, visual impairment, physical disability, deaf-blindness, albinism, mental challenges among others.
3.1 The Special Needs/Disability legal and policy framework
In drawing up strategies and developing innovative approaches for children with special needs, it is always important to have some background knowledge of the legal policy framework in which we operate both internationally and nationally. It is also important to look at your own institutional or organizational policies and examine how special needs friendly they are. All organization or institutions working with children with special needs under UNGEI should ensure that they consciously include special needs in their planning and policies, especially the child protection policy. Some key legal and policy documents that one needs to have and read include;
1) The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
2) Uganda Disability Policy
3) Equal Opportunity Commissions Act 2007
4) National Council for Disability Act
5) Persons with Disabilities Act 2006
3.2 Some examples of strategies and innovation for children with Special Needs
· Deaf Silent Theatre
Uganda Deaf Silent Theatre was founded by Uganda National Association of the Deaf and the Silent Theatre Sweden/Swedish Deaf Association in 2004. What started as an 11-member group consisting of eight actors who are deaf, two interpreters, and one project leader trained in theatrical skills, has grown over the years. Today, the project continues with its objectives to raise awareness about the creative abilities of people who are deaf, to publicize sign language, and to sensitize people who are deaf about pertinent issues like HIV/AIDS and human rights. Silent Theatre has had many outreach projects in districts all over Uganda and because of having interpreters; it can be used to reach both the hearing and the Deaf.
· Ugandan Sign Language
Ugandan Sign Language (USL) is the Deaf Sign Language of Uganda. Uganda was the second country in the world to recognize sign language in its constitution, in 1995. A Ugandan Sign Language Dictionary has been published. However, knowledge of USL is primarily urban, as access to education for the rural deaf remains poor. Nonetheless, USL is a highly valued element of group identity among the deaf community.
Further information on both Silent Theatre and USL can be obtained from the Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) at:
Plot 1601/2, Kiwanga, Namanve - Mukono.
P. o. Box 7339, Kampala.
Tel: 0414532875
· The Right to Play
Research on the play of young children shows that it is practice for life. Children learn about living life in safe, pretend situations so that they are ready and able to deal with reality when they need to. Playing up and down the steps unassisted at home gets the child ready for all the steps out there in the world. For instance, hunting for a lost ball/toy lets her practice information-gathering and problem-solving, perseverance and courage, all of which she will need later on. Her sense of accomplishment when she achieves her goals in play situations teaches her what to expect when s/he sets goals at school and beyond. Movement in play situations readies children for movement in the real world. Play can be as useful to children with special needs as it is to those who do not have them.
As partners, we need to think of innovative ways of getting children with special needs to play. This may require us to get advice from specialists in the area of special needs. The National Union of Disabled Person of Uganda (NUDIPU) would be great starting point in terms of asking about organizations which can help with ideas. NUDIPU had district branches all over the country, which is an added advantage.
NUDIP’s contact details are:
P. O Box 8567, Kampala,
Plot no. 530, Bukoto-Kisasi Road,
Kampala
Plot no. 530, Bukoto-Kisasi Road,
Kampala
On top of some of these ideas, it is important for all actors on girls’ education to always mainstream disability in all their planning and reporting given that globally, issues of disability are not just development issues, they are also human right concerns.
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