Distance learning training sessions for Syrian workers

Title of the project

Supporting children and adolescents with disabilities in the developing of their skills by favouring social inclusion and by strengthening the technical skills of Syrian associations working in the health, education and social field.

Place of the action

Italy, through distance learning training sessions for Syrian workers

Description of the context:

After seven years of conflict, the gravity, complexity and needs of the Syrian population remain overwhelming. About 13.1 million people depend on humanitarian aid and out of this, 5.6 million are in dehumanized conditions. The destruction caused by the conflict and the population displacement has caused a deterioration of access to basic services; furthermore, opportunities to create livelihoods have also become weak. Ultimately, the ability of the population to cope with difficulties and to fulfil their basic needs is seriously inhibited. The area of ​​Damascus has certainly had a big impact of the indirect effects of the conflict. To date, Damascus hosts the largest number of internal refugees in the country (around 650,000 in the city centre while about 1.3 million distributed in the rural area): access to basic services is unquestionably a serious issue.
Furthermore, the destruction of hospitals, schools and infrastructures in the country obliged the entire Syrian population to go to the few functioning centres, that are at most located in Damascus. These centres are congested and they cannot cope with all the requested demands from a qualitatively and quantitatively point of view.
Annulliamo la Distanza started working in Syria in 2016, as partner of the Armadilla Social Cooperative, in a project funded by UNICEF aimed at assuring social inclusion for children with disabilities. AnlaDi took part in the realization of the project as a member of the Scientific Committee, whose main purpose was to analyse the critical factors that preclude social inclusion and the creation of good practices to be implemented in the country. Consequently, Annulliamo la Distanza with the local partner Zareth Al Madan started to implement this action to improve the capacity of local workers for early diagnosis and rehabilitation of children with disabilities. The project is part of a bigger initiative implemented by Armadilla and Open Group cooperatives for PWD assistance and inclusion of the most vulnerable groups.

The project

The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the resilience of particularly vulnerable groups (children with disabilities), by strengthening the capacity of Syrian CSOs to provide quality services for the assistance of PWD. Specifically, the project aims to improve and increase the professional capacity of three local associations in the field of assistance to children with disabilities, training at least 30 workers.
The proposed activities involve the training of workers contracted by the ZAM Center and other local NGOs; the provision of tools for involving and informing parents of disabled children and young people and the community at large.
The training will be carried out in collaboration with qualified operators of UNIMORE-University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, exclusively through distance learning interventions. The following topics will be discussed:
– Introduction to the clinical classification of the main intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders
– Evaluation and early intervention in cognitive and autistic spectrum disorders (use of assessment tools)
– Alternative augmentative communication strategies
– Basic techniques of the behavioural method and approach to problem behaviours
– The psycho- educational approach to autism spectrum disorders and cognitive disorders

Educational material in Arabic will be distributed during the training.

Achieved results

The results achieved will be reported in this section.