A usual day at the premises might give us a glimpse of two empty vans, with “SEID School” written on them, standing in front of a tiny gate. There are four rooms inside the building’s ground floor, having different function for each. One may also find a child receiving physiotherapy to cure cerebral palsy in his leg, by a physiotherapist, who works with such children to facilitate their daily activity. Along with required equipments and proper treatment, the children also receive physiotherapy for better physical movement.
A few more students attend pre-school. While you may find second grade students drawing apples and colouring them in red, while in the next room you’ll find third graders learn the names of animals, fruits and trees and writing them down in their notebooks. SEID only provides pre-school and special education to prepare these students to get accepted into mainstream schools for further education. SEID, a 13-year old organisation, not only prepares these kids for future through physiotherapy, ocupational and speech therapy, but it also provides them with study materials, food, transport, sports and cultural activities. And by the grace of almighty and their hard work, 15 children got accepted in Kamrangee char school.
Society for Education and Inclusion of the Disabled (SEID), a non governmental entity, pledges to diminish the hindrances faced by unprivileged children with Neuro developmental Disability (NDD) and Multiple Disabilities (MD) and difficulty in being accepted by the society.
SEID has supported these Neuro developmental Disability (NDD) stricken children through schooling and by providing livelihood training. A conversation with Dilara Satter Mitu, executive director and her vibrant students has given us some more insight on the initiative.
Disability has different stages for each of its many types. SEID is mainly concentrating in promoting the rights of people with disability especially the ones with Autism, Intellectual Disability, Down’s Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy.
Without making any discrimination the world allocates a set of human rights for all from the day they are born. However, the status quo seems to be quite inaccurate for people with disability. Often times, actors of society refuse to give them their rights as human beings. “The primary concern of SEID is to work only with underprivileged children in order to establish their position in the society,” said by Dilara Satter Mitu, executive director, SEID.
SEID provides step by step procedure for admissions. It runs a primary assessment process to identify the type and level of disability. After that, they are sent to designated places like Shishu Bikash Kendra (Child Development Center), Mental health organisation etc. for more accurate observation. If further medical services are required, it is facilitated by SEID.
Reshma, from third grade, was accepted into a mainstream school, however, she came back to SEID. Many like Reshma are constrained to SEID because the frequency of dropping out from mainstream school still exists in the society due to the existing problem is the society’s mindset.
“It is also quite evident that the schools themselves are not ready for such children since there is a lack of trained teachers,” commented Dilara Satter Mitu.
Since drop outs have more physical growth compared to regular students in the mainstream schools, they are no longer accepted to study with the regular students, and are taken back by SEID to give them vocational training in order to make them economically independent. The training involves blockprinting, dying, sewing and many more.
A huge part of the initiatives adapted by SEID is to try and reduce the number of school drop outs and promote social inclusion. Highly active in orientation programme, SEID arranges dialogue sessions with mainstream students, teachers, school management committee, law enforcing agency, policy-makers and civil society.
On the context of human rights, SIED’s most emphasised advocacy reads “Amar kotha ami bolbo.” The slogan advocates encourages these children to learn to speak for themselves and fight for their own rights in the society. “People are not letting them speak because they perceive them as incapable. This is clearly a violation of human right. But it is very difficult to convey it to the people in the society that these children are capable of speaking for themselves.”
Beyond everything, the executive director of SEID believes that a lot of progress has been achieved. A long time of nurturing has gradually made it possible for them to communicate and be accepted by the society.
