Information on how we work
In order to let Disabled Children go to school we need funds. Unfortunately the foundation is in constant need of money to make the projects that we do to a success. We depend on the goodness of people who have a big heart for the Gambian children to give them a chance of a better life.
Without education their chance of having a better life than that they have now, is very slim.
In January 2013 Anita Goumans contacted the Chairman of the Care Foundation The Gambia (CFTG), Ineke de Rijk, asking if there might be a project that she could submit to SOS Meerlo-Wanssum (see below). And yes, the Foundation had a project. The realization of a School for Disabled Children in Jiboro. This has always been a long cherished wish on the list of the CFTG.
Much information was sent to Anita and in consultation with her family it was decided to adopt this project to go and see if the school for the disabled in Jiboro could be realized. Anita submitted the project application in February. We had to wait and see whether the application would come through the first round. After a number of exciting weeks Anita got the message that the application got through. It meant: On to the next round and that was on April 3 2013.
Anita, along with her son Frans, held the presentation to SOS and the volunteers of SOS-Meerlo Wanssum chose from 3 projects, the project of the "School for Disabled Jiboro". The next three years, SOS-Meerlo Wanssum will make the effort to realize the school in Jiboro, as well as to fund special training for the teachers. What great news that there also will be a possible better future for these children. In the future they can finally communicate because they get education in lip reading and sign language so that they too can make part of the society. The school strives, through education, that society is going to be aware of the potential of these children, which leads to acceptance and access to all sorts of services.
Below you can read where SOS Meerlo-Wanssum stands for.
PRACTICAL and SMALL-SCALE.
SOS Meerlo-Wanssum is a volunteer organization that was founded in 1993 in the former municipality of Meerlo-Wanssum. Assistance to the third world, millennium development goals, global awareness. SOS Meerlo-Wanssum gives practical form to close to home goals in order to raise awareness of the challenges concerning development cooperation. SOS Meerlo-Wanssum adopts every three years a concrete project to this charity. The project has always a bind to the inhabitants of the villages of the former municipality of Meerlo-Wanssum:
Meerlo, Wanssum, Blitterswijck, Tienray, Swolgen and Geijsteren.
The next three years all kinds of actions will be held in the six parishes of the municipality of Meerlo-Wanssum. In schools and associations the School for Disabled Children Jiboro project will be promoted. At the same time SOS does much to awareness-raising activities in schools and unions in their own community. Also activities will be set up and supported to get the people active for the fellow man who are not as fortunate as we are. The organization has over thirty volunteers.
The School for Disabled project has been put forward with great enthusiasm by the Goumans-Coenders family from Meerlo.
Sos Meerloo-Wansum also has its own website. Here you can also keep track of the results.
Unfortunately this website is only in the Dutch language.
www.sos-meerlowanssum.nl
Without education their chance of having a better life than that they have now, is very slim.
In January 2013 Anita Goumans contacted the Chairman of the Care Foundation The Gambia (CFTG), Ineke de Rijk, asking if there might be a project that she could submit to SOS Meerlo-Wanssum (see below). And yes, the Foundation had a project. The realization of a School for Disabled Children in Jiboro. This has always been a long cherished wish on the list of the CFTG.
Much information was sent to Anita and in consultation with her family it was decided to adopt this project to go and see if the school for the disabled in Jiboro could be realized. Anita submitted the project application in February. We had to wait and see whether the application would come through the first round. After a number of exciting weeks Anita got the message that the application got through. It meant: On to the next round and that was on April 3 2013.
Anita, along with her son Frans, held the presentation to SOS and the volunteers of SOS-Meerlo Wanssum chose from 3 projects, the project of the "School for Disabled Jiboro". The next three years, SOS-Meerlo Wanssum will make the effort to realize the school in Jiboro, as well as to fund special training for the teachers. What great news that there also will be a possible better future for these children. In the future they can finally communicate because they get education in lip reading and sign language so that they too can make part of the society. The school strives, through education, that society is going to be aware of the potential of these children, which leads to acceptance and access to all sorts of services.
Below you can read where SOS Meerlo-Wanssum stands for.
PRACTICAL and SMALL-SCALE.
SOS Meerlo-Wanssum is a volunteer organization that was founded in 1993 in the former municipality of Meerlo-Wanssum. Assistance to the third world, millennium development goals, global awareness. SOS Meerlo-Wanssum gives practical form to close to home goals in order to raise awareness of the challenges concerning development cooperation. SOS Meerlo-Wanssum adopts every three years a concrete project to this charity. The project has always a bind to the inhabitants of the villages of the former municipality of Meerlo-Wanssum:
Meerlo, Wanssum, Blitterswijck, Tienray, Swolgen and Geijsteren.
The next three years all kinds of actions will be held in the six parishes of the municipality of Meerlo-Wanssum. In schools and associations the School for Disabled Children Jiboro project will be promoted. At the same time SOS does much to awareness-raising activities in schools and unions in their own community. Also activities will be set up and supported to get the people active for the fellow man who are not as fortunate as we are. The organization has over thirty volunteers.
The School for Disabled project has been put forward with great enthusiasm by the Goumans-Coenders family from Meerlo.
Sos Meerloo-Wansum also has its own website. Here you can also keep track of the results.
Unfortunately this website is only in the Dutch language.
www.sos-meerlowanssum.nl
Information about being deaf
Profound pre-lingual Deafness during infancy is (after
blind -deafness) the most serious threat for the normal development of a human
being. It may have an enormous impact on
his total development, most obviously on his intellectual, social-emotional development
and on his ability to acquire oral and written language. Generally speaking
Deaf children are children at risk.
A considerable number of these profoundly Deaf children develop psychiatric symptoms, some of which are serious. Pretty often the ability of empathy is lacking and the development of a functioning conscience hampered. The main reason for these psychiatric symptoms is the communication problem between the mother and the deaf infant. Normal communication cannot be established and many mothers are uncertain and frequently rejecting the child who cannot be reached via oral communication
For all young children the immediate availability of a caring, loving person is a condition for normal development. Only if this is secured, children will flourish and develop normally. If it is not secured, children do not grow and may not be capable of establishing normal steady relations with other people in their adult life.
For Deaf children this attachment with a caring , loving person is extra important because of their vulnerability. So young Deaf children should never be taken away from their parents before the age of three years, and better still, not before the age of four.
Deafness has many varieties. A small number is 100% deaf. Most of them are hard of hearing, and with hearing aids many of them are capable of hearing sounds. So every young Deaf child should be examined by an audicien to determine its grade of Deafness and if indicated provided with hearing aids.
For every human being the development of speech starts in a very early stage of its development. Mainly between the age of 2 and 3,5. That is what is called the sensitive period. Acquiring language abilities after that period is much more difficult than during it.
For Deaf children the normal way of communicating is communicating by signs. Sign Language is the natural language of the Deaf. Just like oral language, signs as a mean of communication must develop in the period when the infant is accessible for acquiring language best, that is between the age of one and a half and three years.
Because language is learnt by imitating others, Deaf children must learn their language by imitating other Deaf persons, who use sign language. So it is of utmost importance that Deaf children can communicate with other Deaf persons at a very young age and that their parents and family members learn how to sign as well.
Sign language has all kinds of varieties. Every region has its own variety. So there is no universal form of Sign language. In Gambia there are several dialects in sign language and the Deaf of The Gambia are trying to standardize a Gambian sign language, that can be used all over the country by every Deaf person.
Because of the communication problem and the vulnerability of Deaf children, teachers need extra skills to be able to work with them. They need the normal training as a teacher, but additionally training in special education of the Deaf and in the local Sign Language. The time to educate a teacher of the Deaf after his graduation from a regular teacher training college is about three years; in Holland it takes 5 years before you are fully qualified.
Because eye-to-eye contact is the only way to reach a Deaf person, people who work with Deaf children must acquire the ability to catch attention this way, whereas Deaf children who have to, but do not want to be corrected, always avoid this eye contact. This makes educating Deaf children a very time consuming and difficult activity. in Holland the maximum number of Deaf children that can be in one classroom with one teacher never exceeds 6 - 8. Didactic and pedagogical skills of professional educators must be excellent.
During adolescence, sexual development and dealing with the opposite sex, very often causes great problems. Many boys do not respect the limits girls are indicating. Sexual experiments amongst each other are common. Acting out and offensive behavior is widespread. Some youngsters get into troubles with the police. These phenomena also require special skills from educators of the Deaf.
In The Gambia the government is a supporter of these initiatives to raise these schools, which means that Private enterprises and Foundations can build schools for this purpose because the Government does not have the means to do this themselves.
The present trend is that the existing special schools start special classes for blind, deaf or intellectually retarded children in one of the classrooms of mainstream schools, and that these special schools deliver the qualified teachers for these classes.
In The Gambia are approximately 50,000 Deaf persons. This number is high, and is a result of central malaria infections, meningitis or untreated repeated middle ear infections.
Public acceptance of Deaf persons is very limited. Many of them are hidden from society, because parents are ashamed and consider them to be God's punishment for parental sins. Many Deaf girls and boys must stay at home, because education is considered to be a waste for them. Public opinion very often is: Deaf persons are not capable of learning and do not contribute to the family or society. Sometimes they are seen as evil spirits.
Only few Deaf people manage to find a job. Many depend on their families.
Vocational training for Deaf people in 'skills centers' could help to improve their position in society, but is very scarce. Government funding for this is absent. Generally speaking the Gambian authorities have a positive attitude concerning improvement of the position of the Deaf community, but budget is hardly made available.
Influencing public opinion, awareness and advocacy are important activities for the Organisation of the Deaf,
A considerable number of these profoundly Deaf children develop psychiatric symptoms, some of which are serious. Pretty often the ability of empathy is lacking and the development of a functioning conscience hampered. The main reason for these psychiatric symptoms is the communication problem between the mother and the deaf infant. Normal communication cannot be established and many mothers are uncertain and frequently rejecting the child who cannot be reached via oral communication
For all young children the immediate availability of a caring, loving person is a condition for normal development. Only if this is secured, children will flourish and develop normally. If it is not secured, children do not grow and may not be capable of establishing normal steady relations with other people in their adult life.
For Deaf children this attachment with a caring , loving person is extra important because of their vulnerability. So young Deaf children should never be taken away from their parents before the age of three years, and better still, not before the age of four.
Deafness has many varieties. A small number is 100% deaf. Most of them are hard of hearing, and with hearing aids many of them are capable of hearing sounds. So every young Deaf child should be examined by an audicien to determine its grade of Deafness and if indicated provided with hearing aids.
For every human being the development of speech starts in a very early stage of its development. Mainly between the age of 2 and 3,5. That is what is called the sensitive period. Acquiring language abilities after that period is much more difficult than during it.
For Deaf children the normal way of communicating is communicating by signs. Sign Language is the natural language of the Deaf. Just like oral language, signs as a mean of communication must develop in the period when the infant is accessible for acquiring language best, that is between the age of one and a half and three years.
Because language is learnt by imitating others, Deaf children must learn their language by imitating other Deaf persons, who use sign language. So it is of utmost importance that Deaf children can communicate with other Deaf persons at a very young age and that their parents and family members learn how to sign as well.
Sign language has all kinds of varieties. Every region has its own variety. So there is no universal form of Sign language. In Gambia there are several dialects in sign language and the Deaf of The Gambia are trying to standardize a Gambian sign language, that can be used all over the country by every Deaf person.
Because of the communication problem and the vulnerability of Deaf children, teachers need extra skills to be able to work with them. They need the normal training as a teacher, but additionally training in special education of the Deaf and in the local Sign Language. The time to educate a teacher of the Deaf after his graduation from a regular teacher training college is about three years; in Holland it takes 5 years before you are fully qualified.
Because eye-to-eye contact is the only way to reach a Deaf person, people who work with Deaf children must acquire the ability to catch attention this way, whereas Deaf children who have to, but do not want to be corrected, always avoid this eye contact. This makes educating Deaf children a very time consuming and difficult activity. in Holland the maximum number of Deaf children that can be in one classroom with one teacher never exceeds 6 - 8. Didactic and pedagogical skills of professional educators must be excellent.
During adolescence, sexual development and dealing with the opposite sex, very often causes great problems. Many boys do not respect the limits girls are indicating. Sexual experiments amongst each other are common. Acting out and offensive behavior is widespread. Some youngsters get into troubles with the police. These phenomena also require special skills from educators of the Deaf.
In The Gambia the government is a supporter of these initiatives to raise these schools, which means that Private enterprises and Foundations can build schools for this purpose because the Government does not have the means to do this themselves.
The present trend is that the existing special schools start special classes for blind, deaf or intellectually retarded children in one of the classrooms of mainstream schools, and that these special schools deliver the qualified teachers for these classes.
In The Gambia are approximately 50,000 Deaf persons. This number is high, and is a result of central malaria infections, meningitis or untreated repeated middle ear infections.
Public acceptance of Deaf persons is very limited. Many of them are hidden from society, because parents are ashamed and consider them to be God's punishment for parental sins. Many Deaf girls and boys must stay at home, because education is considered to be a waste for them. Public opinion very often is: Deaf persons are not capable of learning and do not contribute to the family or society. Sometimes they are seen as evil spirits.
Only few Deaf people manage to find a job. Many depend on their families.
Vocational training for Deaf people in 'skills centers' could help to improve their position in society, but is very scarce. Government funding for this is absent. Generally speaking the Gambian authorities have a positive attitude concerning improvement of the position of the Deaf community, but budget is hardly made available.
Influencing public opinion, awareness and advocacy are important activities for the Organisation of the Deaf,