Projects: Innovations in Basic and Special Education

Project Goals:

The purpose of PC-DR's Innovations in basic and Special Education Project is to improve education at the local (community and district) level by working with SEE district offices, school educators, and local PTAs. Volunteers, with their project partners and community members, analyze educational needs and implement projects at the community level that will assure increases in the quantity and quality of educational services for basic and special needs children.

Project Activities:

• Create awareness among teachers and the community about the needs of all students, especially those with special needs or disabilities
• Promote an awareness of the importance of an adequate education for all students
• Train teachers in literacy techniques to identify struggling students or students who repeat the same grade numerous times in methodologies to provide students with a quality education
• Improve parenting skills

Individual Project Descriptions

• Zahira Navarrete
• As a Special Education volunteer, I am partnered with El Instituto de Enseñanza de Niños Especiales. Founded in 1999, IDENE is a small school for children with special needs in the northwestern region. The only school of its kind in the province, IDENE serves children throughout the area with a range of disabilities which include Down syndrome, Hearing Impairment, Autism and general delays. Started by a group of parents with children whose special needs required additional community-based attention, the school currently serves 54 children and young adults with moderate to severe educational impairments throughout the area.
  
  My work includes relationships with the institute, families and surrounding community. My current projects include developing materials, appropriate teaching methods, and a deeper understanding of special education with the staff at IDENE. I make home visits to students and their families on a regular basis to help identify and assist in their progress during non-school hours. In addition, the staff at IDENE and I are working on developing consciousness-raising activities as well as opportunities for children and adults with special needs for participation and employment in the community.
• Robyn Kiesling
• My name is Robyn and I live in the Eastern part of the Dominican Republic. I am a follow-up volunteer in my project, which means that I am finishing what another volunteer before me started. I work with a new school for students with special needs. The school was started in September 2006 and has just started its second year. The students who come to school in the morning have special needs of all types, but mostly Down syndrome and Cognitive Delay. None of them have had any education in the public schools because there are no Special Education programs offered, so this is the first time that most of them have been in a regular school setting. The afternoon session will be run as an after school help program for children in the area that go to school in the morning and need extra help in certain areas.
  
  Because the school is new and it is not funded by the government, it runs completely off of donations and fundraisers. There is some support from the community and from the parents, but the idea is to get the school regular funding so that it can operate properly. The school itself is running fairly self-sufficiently with the help of its board of directors, but it is in serious lack of materials and money to pay its teachers. I will hopefully be able to help the school receive more funding for salaries and materials for the school and for the students, as well as help the teachers with development of the curriculum. I am also hoping to start a group for sexual education in the community and some sort of dental education seminar as side projects. I am also teaching two English classes right now.

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Perspective. If you know where someone is coming from you’ll be better able to understand where they are trying to go and how you can help them in the 'camino'.Jenn BiresFormer volunteer in the Dominican Republic 2005-2007.