TRAINING PROGRAM
We understand that in order for the VIPs to be proactive and productive members of society, we must work on providing special training for their surrounding communities. This includes :
1- Post-Graduate Diploma for Low Vision and Blindness Specialists
One of the main problems we have in Egypt is the lack of education programs that graduate people to become specialists in the field of visual impairment. Some programs in Egypt deal with all disabilities rather than specializing in visual impairment. Therefore, Baseera introduced in 2022, for the first time in Egypt, a post graduate diploma with international standards, graduating professionals in Low Vision Therapy and Orientation and mobility majors, in cooperation with a well-known local university and the department of Low Vision and Blindness studies in USA’s Western Michigan University, one of the best in the world.
2- Basic/ short training courses of 2-5 days
For our basic short training programs, we have classified three main target groups: parents, school teachers, and health professionals. We provide specific know-how skills for each target group. These training programs are essential as there is a lack of information about the needs of VIPs and how different their disability is from other disabilities.
PARENTS
Our goal is to reassure parents who are blessed with a child with visual impairment. We do this by introducing them to a support group that helps them address their child’s needs, utilize their child’s abilities, and help them reach their greatest potential to be socially and emotionally stable.
Parents are often either too protective of their visually impaired child or they don’t realize their child’s capabilities. Both ways are harmful for their child’s development and independence. Due to the high level of ignorance in Egypt regarding disabilities, parents avoid telling their children about their disabilities. We work on changing this mentality through a comprehensive approach that:
– Provides basic knowledge on what to do when you discover that your child has a visual impairment (the medical, social, and educational support you should seek out).
– Builds a network of parents of children with visual impairment to support one another.
– Provides knowledge on the abilities of VIPs and success stories that help the parents clearly envision their children’s various opportunities.
– Highlights the significant bad habits parents should avoid, mainly over helping their children in their daily activities and treating them as incapable.
– Trains parents on how to assist in their child’s early development, ideally once they discover their child is VI. The caregiver is a direct partner in the early intervention stage when the child learns orientation & mobility skills, self-help, and social skills.
– Trains parents on how to provide psychological support to their VI child, when to tell them about their disability, and comfort them when needed.
– Provides essential medical knowledge on VIPs, how to address them, and when/how to seek help.
– Trains parents on how to assist their children’s education process through modified methods using other senses.
– Trains parents on how to demand their children’s rights and how to negotiate themselves for these rights instead of depending on us (often this is needed, especially with schools, healthcare, and transportation, among other services).
TEACHERS
To achieve our goal of inclusive education, teachers are one of our main target groups. While inclusive education today is required by law, we realize that often school teachers resist welcoming VIPs into their classrooms. This is due to their lack of knowledge on assisting these children rather than being discriminatory against them. Thus, we have created a special program for teachers which focuses on:
– Learning abilities of the VI children. It is important to stress that VI children are capable of learning yet they need different learning methods.
– Engaging a VI child in the classroom, for example, through utilizing their sense of hearing, touch, and smell.
– Modifying teaching tools and methods.
– Keeping the children with VI aware of what is happening in the classroom.
– Teaching the importance of not giving them more attention than their peers, as it hinders their sense of independence.
– Creating a welcoming environment for a child with VI among his peers.
– Problem-solving, what to do in case other children tease/bully the child with VI.
– Teaching the importance of not isolating them but supporting them in making friends.
HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONALS
One of the main problems we face in Egypt is that prime healthcare does not include eye examinations. A large percentage of a child’s sight could be saved if tested at an early stage and surgical intervention is conducted.
Among our target groups in our training programs are public health units, school health units, and public health insurance offices. The training covers:
– The importance of conducting eye examinations and how to conduct them.
– Performing a proper assessment of a child’s vision and reporting it.
– Providing them with manuals to assist people with low vision in seeking the correct type of support.
– What to tell a person who is identified as low vision or blind.
– Providing comfort to a low-vision or blind child and their parents.
Contact us
Dokki Branch:
47 Soliman Gohar Street, Dokki, Giza
Tel : +20237626081
Mob: +201000220596
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Heliopolis Branch:
10 Hassan Moussa Elakkad street, behind Palestine Hospital
Tel: +20226910294
Mob: +201000220596
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Alexandria Branch:
46 Al Akbal Street, Taha Tower 2, 3rd Floor
Tel: +2033555582
Mob: +201013054320
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Email: info@baseerafoundation.org