The Game Changer’s Protocol

The Game Changer’s Protocol

my vision my dream is to empower the differently abled person of my lovely country. I started my journey of empowerment from 2001 by introducing jaws based computer training to the visually impaired person at idarieu school. Since then I have trained many visually impaired person. most of my students are now independently working in banks, companies, kesc and pizza hut etc. The modern day technology is a boon for reducing the limitations of differently abled persons. Unfortunately many in the less developed countries like Pakistan are not aware of these developments and where they are aware, these technolgies are not within their reach. I have gathered my thoughts regarding special children and how to make their life's easier in our country, and how to make use of these technologies with out given limitations. special children need special care. special education means to provide friendly environment, accessible setting and friendly approach. For differently abled children it is difficult to make a standard education plan and administer them uniformly. Each special child needs to be carefully assessed for his/her limitations and an individual educational plan documented. These individual plans have to be jointly developed by interacting with the child by the class teacher, parents, resource teacher school principal or any psychologist or therapist if required. the purpose of education is to produce healthy, gentle, knowledgeable, helpful, kind and enthusiastic citizen. Unfortunately our present system mostly produces pity and help seeking, complexed individuals full of frustration and lacking initiative and positive thinking. a teacher is like a candle which beam and lightens the small candles. a teacher not only transfer his / her knowledge to students also reflect his / her character / behaviour towards the students. there are many teachers in children's' life. parents, school teachers, siblings, friends, society and media. there are 2 main types of learning, deliberate learning and incidental learning. both happen in a class room as well. incidental learning starts when a child born. there are different kinds of incidental learning. observational learning. accidental learning. exploring learning. a child weather normal or challenged is a child first. have same curiosity level to learning and exploring the world. according to Dr. Montisorri a child is a scientist and the world is a place for him to explore. in the case of challenged child there are many limitations in our country Pakistan. most of the times these children are isolated in a restricted environment. there are some major problems. 1. there is no concept of parents support centre. when parents hear that their child is challenged they suffer from seven emotional phases e.g. 1. shock. feeling like the doctor is telling false. 2. denial like this is normal! I also have large eyes, or I often ignore the sounds around me. 3. depression. feeling unhappy, hiding the child from public, taking no care of family chores. 4. aggression, this is a most critical stage in which parents often blame the child, their selves and often become aggressive. 5. chronic depression. don't eat, can't sleep, unable to provide proper medical care to the child, unable to justify with all children. 6. bargaining. in this stage parents accept that the child is challenged but they believe that our child is challenged, now God will do anything for him. our responsibility is just to provide him / her food and dress. 7. acceptance. in this stage parents start thinking about the child and how to start his / her education. if the above problems are not treated they live longer, sometimes always. due to lack of emotional support challenged children and their families suffer. in our Country. 2. learning problems. although the learning process start from the birth. if the child is visually impaired then what could be his feelings. most of the children confront with emotional and psychological issues. the emotionally disturbed parents often discourage the children to explore the world and learn. that is why the sensorial learning and motor learning become slow. usually there is a big communicational gap between these children and their parents. that is why these children also confront with behavioural issues. the third problem in our Country is educational system for challenged children. these children not only need curriculum education. also they need emotional support, physical training, mobility training, rehabilitation training. their parents also need guidance. only a qualified and honest teacher can handle such issues. in many countries challenged children are receiving quality education with mainstream. although this is a better approach but not established in our country, the reason is lack of awareness. most of the people are totally unaware regarding challenged people, their needs, their feelings, although we all have read about Helen keler but sadly we have never thought about the noble society which produce such a role model. we have separate charity based schools for challenged children. that is why these children are isolated in a typical environment. where children from different backgrounds are gathered in a same platform. if we do some effort surely we can bring a solution. there should be kind hearted and committed teachers to deal with the challenged children with emotional / behaviour problems. the fourth problem is social / communicational gap between challenged person and mainstream. in our lovely society we rarely think about making public places accessible for challenged person. challenged children also wish to go parks and to play with their siblings equally. they are just bound in special schools and homes. they need acceptance not only from their parents also from society. let us brake these barriers. according to my view if we want we can easily make the life's of challenged children easier and independent in our country. * proper educational system for challenged children parents should provide them chance to do little chores like shopping, cooking. * all teachers should receive trainings before entering the class. * there should be a board of special education who monitor the progress of all special schools and should have right to cancel the license. * parents support centre. * all ophthalmologists and other doctors should be aware from parents support centres. if they meet with a challenged child they must refer them there to get proper emotional support, and to learn how to brought up challenged children. * teachers support centre. * to trained the kind hearted people to become a mentor of challenged children. * allow challenged children to often attend regular schools as a guest. so it could be benefit for challenged children and their regular friends. * media should play active role. * all special schools should also teach art of daily living to these children. all above is possible if all decision makers like school managements, media personnel, education ministers, board of education, and parents sit together and design a resolution. as technology has open the doors of success for everyone including challenged person. this is a right time to pay heat towards such issues. Although This is my dire dream to empower the challenged person of Pakistan. make their lifes easier and produce successful, independent future heros from Pakistan. I have started my journey of empowerment from 2001. I understand that this is a difficult task. but I am convinced that Like SIUT, LRBT, TCF and aman foundation if a person is dedcated to achief he can achieve anything. our Country is full of kind hearted people. the first step is to create awareness. project name: empowering the differently abled people. project description: raising awareness regarding visually impaired person and their needs, how to communicate with visually impaired person, how to improve their integration with mainstream, how to create a barriar free society for visually impaired person. our vision Rarely any human being is blessed with every ability. Some have deficiency in ability to paint or sing, or dance or swim. Some have behavioral issues, some can not see, some can not hear and some can not speak. We consider every person as equally important equal citizen deserving equal opportunities to survive benefit from natural and social facilities. our mission to spread awareness regarding visually impaired people in our society. to make people understand their needs and welcome them in mainstream. As a first step we will design some awareness raising programs which could be given in selected schools, hospitals, organisations and media. for further information visit www.facebook.com/empowering.tdp or email me at shaziarizvi@gmail.com