Creating friendly environment for children with disabilities

There are several problems the children with disabilities face when dealing with infrastructures that didn’t consider them.
Toilet system, for the example in various schools have been posing big problems to children with physical or vision disabilities, because they are built for the people who can see, walk or seat without difficulties.
There are various efforts being done, however, in trying to address the problem, and so of them have started to yield fruits.
Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) has been among the volunteers of the campaigns to address infrastructural barriers children with disabilities face in Mwanza and other areas across the Lake Zone regions.
CCBRT is now committed in is campaigning to help disabilities by motivating education in order to strike balance that gives equal opportunity to both children with disability and those who are not.
This is has been done by constructing infrastructures that permit or enables children with disabilities to have good learning environment and enjoy learning.
When the world celebrated the International day for people with disabilities, Mwanza marked the day nationally in an occasion that drew many organizations dealing with disabled persons and disabled stake-holders together.
CCBRT’s Senior Alliance Manager, Suzan Mtui said that CCBRT was invited to be part in the celebrations, but it had its own style of marking the day. The CCBRT officers used the opportunity to identify 11 primary schools that have not have an special education programmes for children with disabilities.
“We prepared a competition that involved those schools that picked the first, second and third winners in having infrastructures that enable children with disabilities to enjoy learning,” said Mtui.
The eleven schools, all from Ilemela and Nyamagana districts of Mwanza City, three schools won the competition, with Ibeshi Primary school claiming the winner’s title.
The Ibeshi primary school Head Teacher, Samweli Aron said that the school has mixed pupils, both normal and children with disabilities, saying that 4 of them are children with albinism, while other two, a girls and a boy are children with physical disabilities.
According to him the school has created friendly environment for children with disabilities and the school management was committed to make sure that this year, the school create a tracking corridor for children with disabilities under the sponsorship of Derby Grammar school in the United kingdom (UK), where the sponsorship life span is 10 years, and for the time being remains 3 years before contract termination.
From the second winner, Mkuyuni B Primary school, the Head teacher, Ms Salome Mashimba said that she was happy her school to be among the winners. She added that it accommodates the total number of 830, but she had only three children with disabilities last year, this year the school does not any.
Adding she said at the moment she didn’t need any contribution from well wishers to contribute for children with disabilities as there is none of them seeking disabled friendly infrastructure.
The Lake Primary school that managed to claim the third position also benefited from the CCBRT drive.
The school’s head teachers, Ms Annett Kahanga said that the disabled stake-holders, particularly CCBRT have to inject more money to help schools that are not special units.
She said that government and other stakeholders have to think how children with disabilities can be handled comparing to those children with no disabilities in order to strike balance in the communities.
The Mkuyuni A primary school, Head Teacher, Ms Valentina Rugera said that her school has only one children with hearing disability as most of who their previously have completed the school last year.
He hailed the pupil for his inquisitive as he captured the lesson faster than those who do not have that disability.
The active implementation of inclusive education in Tanzania started in 1998 by the government in cooperation with the Salvation Army and UNESCO when a pilot project was conducted in Temeke district in the Dar es Salaam region.
The statements regarding the rights to education for learners with disabilities were emphasized, though practically, little is being implemented. The policy also aimed at producing more general teachers and special education trained teachers.
National disability policy (2004): In Tanzania there was no clear and specific policy to guide the right to education for people with disabilities before the introduction of this policy.
The policy among other things, calls for collaboration between the government and various educational stakeholders to provide a favorable learning environment in inclusive education as it is inculcated in (URT, 2004).
The right to education is a fundamental human right. It has to be protected and extended to Set up in 1994; Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) was established as a Community Based Rehabilitation program searching for people with cataract in Dar es Salaam.
“Since then we have grown to become the largest indigenous provider of disability services in Tanzania. We are a locally registered NGO aiming to empower people with disabilities and their families, improve their quality of life, and ensure access to medical and rehabilitative treatment,” said CCBRT officer.
Committed to preventing disabilities wherever possible, CCBRT is also engaged in extensive maternal and newborn healthcare (MNHC) activities.
CCBRT serves the poorest of the poor in the community and tries to remove as many barriers as possible to allow people to seek treatment. We are changing the lives and communities of some of the poorest and most marginalized people in Tanzania.
Since independence, the Tanzanian government has been struggling to create a better education while fighting for equality in its education system and avoided fundamental segregation.
The Tanzanian founding father of the nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyere decided to bring changes in education system after finding the inherited colonial education was sagregative in nature and was based on religion, race, gender background and ethnic groups.
The formation of education for self-reliance in 1967 by Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere aimed at eliminating the segregative education system.