Children with disabilities in the Middle East and North Africa often face isolation and exclusion. SAT-7 has been challenging the status quo and supporting families to help their children achieve their potential through Arabic program The Same Bench.
UNICEF estimates that one in seven children in the region – nearly 21 million – have a disability.1 While mainstream schools are required to integrate pupils with disabilities, many do not, for several reasons including a lack of resources necessary to accommodate children with additional needs.
“We saw a need in the media to address specific issues affecting the education of children with special needs in mainstream schools and what challenges they and their parents face in the process,” program producer Tamer Adly said.
Encouraging Acceptance
Each episode opens with a short drama about a difficulty a teacher is facing regarding a child with a disability. The same teacher is then seen sitting with an expert discussing the issue and receiving advice on how to handle it.
“It is necessary that the school management and teachers accept students with disabilities because other students don’t judge students with disabilities unless they see an adult doing so,” Nadia Abdullah, family rehabilitation consultant at CARITAS Egypt, said.
She encourages parents of children with disabilities to apply for their children to go to mainstream schools because it helps to boost their potential, it encourages them to challenge themselves, and it allows them to not feel different from other students. Nadia gave an example of how the father of a blind girl insisted she join a mainstream school. After many rejections, a school finally accepted her. She rose to the top of her class, passed her exams with the highest grades, and entered college.
Supporting Parents
The Same Bench has been raising awareness about disability issues and challenging misconceptions. The program also educates and encourages families who have a child with a disability by providing guidance on how best to support their child to help them achieve their potential.
“Integration helps the student advance in their studies and try to reach the same level of study as other students,” one viewer commented.
A mother said that she implemented what she saw on the program with her children: “We put them into judo practice, and it helped them in self-defense. It also helped them in their studies and taught them to be responsible.”
Topics covered on the program include transportation for children with disabilities, success stories, autism, and prejudice against children with disabilities.
Maha Badawy, an expert on childhood and adolescence, told The Same Bench:
“Parents need to be prepared to face opposition from society in the form of looks and alienation, but they must persist in the integration process of their child because the more they persist, the less resistance there will be from society and the more acceptance of their child. This is important for their child’s well-being.”
Source
1 UNICEF
