A special inclusive school for special children
Created in partnership with Montpascal Foundation, a school for arts and
crafts, where children from different backgrounds in Central Asia (Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) regions interact and help
each other develop and grow through the arts and crafts.
1. Challenge
Across Central Asia, children with disabilities
are particularly vulnerable to stigma and
discrimination, and are often segregated.
They may not appear in national statistics,
becoming ‘invisible’ to decision makers,
service providers and the public.
While data on the estimated 5.1 million
children with disabilities across the region
remain scarce, we know they face multiple
rights violations, from a lack of early
detection or diagnosis of their disabilities, to
exclusion from education and participation
in their communities.
Many special kids face
deprivation from other kids
due to fears of development
of negative emotions
towards special kids
A special school! Where
children are taught to
interact with special needs
kids through arts & crafts
classes.
Millions of special children are thought to be out of
school across Central Asia. Many are still excluded from
mainstream education and consigned to so-called
‘special needs schools’. Some teachers still refuse to
educate special children, and some parents fear that
their children’s education will suffer if they share the
classroom with a child who is special.
Localised arts and crafts
that take into account
individual local arts & crafts
skills helping children
establish a LOCAL
TALENT which will be
useful in their environment
2. Solution
The Umay School of Arts will support outreach
services to families with young children in Central
Asia to identify and respond to any disabilities at
an early age, giving children a chance to reach
their potential and keeping families together. The
school will provide adequate child protection,
health and nutrition and early childhood
development – give families support and connect
them to specialized services.
Obstacles to learning and participation are not the ‘fault’ of a child’s impairment.
We will aim to make schools inclusive and
child-focused, recognizing that the obstacles to
learning and participation are not the ‘fault’ of a
child’s impairment, but rather the capacity of
schools to remove those obstacles through art.
Our work with our partners has helped to increase
the number of children with disabilities attending
regular schools across the region. In Moldova, for
example, the number of children with special
educational needs in regular schools quadrupled
between 2012 and 2015.
In Armenia, we support inclusive education
through cross-sectoral collaboration for children
with disabilities.
In Romania, the number of children with special
educational needs in regular schools increased
from 2 per cent in 2000 to 63 per cent in 2014.
And in Serbia, we have supported a major
expansion of the inclusive schools network.
We tackle the discrimination that keeps children
with disabilities isolated.
UNICEF tackles the discrimination that keeps
children with disabilities isolated, supporting
training to change mind-sets and develop skills
among medical staff, teachers, psychologists,
occupational therapists and social workers, and
working to change public attitudes towards
disability.
➔ What
What is the pain you cure with your
solution?
➔ Who
Show them a specific person who would
benefit from your solution.
Partnerships.
- UNICEF
- The school will establish partnership with UNICEF in
delivering solutions to the programs in tackling
inequality in education, and helping children find
their place in life through expression in arts.
- University of Arts (London)
- Umay School of Arts will seek partnership with UAL
to help children who are seeking further higher
education
- Local schools
- Umay SOA will partner with existing arts and crafts
school across the region to utilise their customer
base and help them grow through financial support
for equipment, teachers and bigger premises
Through art.
UMAY SOA will teach children how to
interact with special children through
art and craft. Education for special or
gifted children shall be free of charge.
Working together with special
children, other children will learn how
to build relationships that may last a
lifetime. Through art and crafting
together and seeing the end results
will hopefully keep these children of
going the wrong way in life, spending
less time on “streets” and more with
keeping their hands and minds busy.
Fact about clay
Children tend to not focus on a
task for very long, but can get
engrossed in their work when it
comes to clay.
Most of the reasons why they can
get absorbed in their work
revolve around the physical
response from the clay, having a
physical outlet to express their
emotions and ideas, or having
control and free will over the
clay.
Teachers.
Umay will train and help teachers work with
different special needs children. Constant
improvement of qualifications, training and
own manuals for working special needs and
in general with children in art. Development
of local talent is a must!
Financials
Initial inflow of capital per school (up to 200 children) is
around $500,000 per year (Rent of premises $120k, Salaries
of Admin staff $240k, Equipment costs $100k, other costs
$140k)
Once school is up and running, the study from usual families
will be payable ($5,000 per child per year) and shall generate
$1,000,000 per year towards operational expenses.
The company running the school will be formed in AIFC
(Astana International Financial Centre) as a non-profit
organization.
Also UMAY SOA will seek financial support from oil and gas,
mining and telecommunication businesses working in Central
Asian countries as part of social responsibility initiatives.
A better way to give - is to teach.
Let's make a world a better
place for children in need,
and not, in Central Asia.
