It's been a while since I posted because of several reasons, however, this one email I received ten days ago, I promised the sender (Mounira) to publish her email as soon as I'm back and get a chance to do so.
It's one of the rare-to-discuss-subjects. Maybe because we don't have enough info about it (like me), maybe because no one actually hear about it much, maybe some feel shy talking about it, maybe... anyway, let's read Mounira's concern:
Hi Mr Sabbah,
Surfing on the net, I got to your web site. Reading about you, I learned about your thoughts and found out that I share most of them with you. Let me tell you that It is the first time I get in touch with a person from the middle east (sorry that I hesitated a lot), but I am sure we can forward on many important project like the one I am suggesting to you.
I would strongly like to get in touch with serious people or associations taking care of children with down syndrom (I am sending you some pictures of my wonderful son Ali who is giving me and his family so much love and hapiness (my husband mounir, my son marouane 15 years, Yasmine 9 years old).
In morocco we do a very good job, our associations are almost in touch with europeans associtions, and I wonder why don't we as arabic countries perform more together.
I have so much to share with my poor english, but I can do it. can you put my request on your site or try to inform people around youthank you in advance Haitham if you don't mind
best regardsMounira Tyal Sedrati
So here it is, Mounira. BTW, wonderful kid. God bless him.
OTOH, this subject is a closed-box for me, so I requested Mounira to give more details about what she is planning for, and what she would like to see online. She was generous enough to give a very interesting action plan, direct to the point, she replied:
Dear Haitham,
thank you for your quick response.
my request is as following:
1- be in touch with responsibles of associations taking care of children with down syndrome, share with them the programs we provide ours with, to integrate them socially, working on what we call early action and scolar integration
2- get in touch with mothers and give them guidance at home
3- look for sponsors and donaters to whome we could present our projects in details and see if we can build something in two or more arabic countries ans franchise system in taking care of handicaped persons
4- invite people to our country as trainees or visit other arabic countries as trainees also to keep on learning and learning to better performanceAds
thank you very much for thinking about what I suggest
best regards
mounira
This is great plan, Mounira!
So, this is an open invitation for all concerned to contact Mounira. I've not published here email here so she won't get spammed. If you are interested, let me know and I'll forward you all the contacts you need to get in touch with Mounira.
OTOH, it would be interesting to hear from people in the Middle East more information and maybe share with us his/her experience is dealing with handicapped people. You as parents, professionals, donators, etc. how good/bad is this sector in our society treated? Where do we stand? Are we doing enough? Is there anything more that we should do, and what?
Thanks Mounira for sharing this. It feels good to be away from politics, and this is a good reason to do that :-)
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I live on the East Coast of USA, I have a coworker with a brother with down’s syndrome who would have a lot of info on what worked for her family and what did not work. Would that be of any interest?
Salam Haitham,
A close friend is the leader of a Downs Syndrome organisation and would be happy to make contact.
Cheers & keep up the great blogging.
Samir
I live on the East Coast of USA, I have a coworker with a brother with down’s syndrome who would have a lot of info on what worked for her family and what did not work. Would that be of any interest?
Hi Haitham and welcome back … you were missed :)
I am not working in this sector, however; I know for a fact that Jordan is one of the pioneers in the Arab World when it comes to caring for the mentally or physically disabled … we have great associations like Nazek Al Hariri for light cases and Arabic Center for severe cases ..
My sister is a graduate in this field from the university of Jordan and has worked for both centers. She has dealt with Down syndrome and more severe cases like Autism and even unique cases that were one of a kind in the whole world ..
She is now working in Al Montissury School in the resources room and she works with students with special needs or learning disabilities .. I will try to get more information from her
I have dealt with Down Syndrome before through a relative .. and I read some information about it .. different to what people believe; it is not that hard to deal with someone with down syndrome .. all they need is knowledge, some training and lots of love and determination and they will be just fine
Thank you for the great post Haitham .. it is a good shift from politics and I would really love to see more of that on your blog :)
I thank you too for this post!
Ps.Ali, Mounira’s younger child, is lovely!!!!! :)
Haitham,
This is a wonderful initiative.
Because of this, I spent the last few hours searching the web for resources in Palestine. I know that they exist, but you wouldn’t know it from the info online. PRCS looks to be doing much for mentally and physically disabled children in their centres in Gaza and West Bank.
Also, in Gaza, I found:
Down’s Syndrome Children’s Right to Live Society
Al-Rasheed St.
P.O. Box 1021
Gaza
Tel: 868340
Fax: 868340
Also, I found the Karim Rida Said Foundation, listing programs in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine:
http://www.krsf.org/projects/palestine.html
I think that in addition to direct care, there needs to be a raising of awareness programs in the Arab world. My understanding is that often children with down syndrome or other disabilities are societally marginalised, and become a family’s “dirty secret”. Thanks to programs such as Special Olympics, this perception is thankfully changing.
By the way, the UAE will stage the fifth edition of the Special Olympics Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in November 2006. http://www.specialolympics.org/special+olympics+public+website/english/compete/competition_calendar/2006+mena+regional+games.htm
My daughter is down syndrome & I am living in the UAE.Recently UAE government has taken the initiative to include Down syndrome children in the mainstream & they have included 5 downsyndrrome children in normal schools and will be monitoring their acceptence & performance.I think children with disablity should be included in mainstream for various reasons.mainly in arab world there is social stigma attached to mentally challenge children.World will be a better place if we become an inclusive society instead of being a society of isolation.We as muslims should embrace that very much.I firmly believe we should include all religions ,all people & we could immediately see the sea change.
There are some support groups here namely All 4 downsyndrome group which is fairly active and also SFS group.recently downsyndrome conference was held here and the theme of the speach was mainly about inclusion.
Down syndrome children learn to imitate quickly and hence if they be with normal children they learn to behave like normal children.
Hello,
My name is Hind, and i have a Down Syndrom 4 years old, right now i live in Boston MA but i am thinking to go back to Morocco.
Does any body know about school or organization for special needs kids at Casablanca?
Thank you for your time.
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