“Development spaces” in 15 schools

Friday, December 7, 2018

“Development spaces” in 15 schools

 9500 children will benefit from this development model that starts for the first in Albania!

 

3 December 2018: On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, World Vision in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth opened the first development spaces in two schools in Lezha and Korca.

The National Director of World Vision for Western Balkans Eljona Boçe Elmazi with the head of local institutions in Korca and simultaneously in Lezha the Program Director for World Vision Albania, Artina Morava, signed the memorandum of understandings, that pave the way for this innovative development model for every child in 15 schools of pre-university education in Kamëz, Durrës, Kurbin, Lezhë, Elbasan, Përrenjas, Shkodër, Dibër and Korça.

This memorandum of understanding is welcomed by the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination, Mr. Robert Gajda.

 “45.4% of children aged 2 until 17 years old in our country have a slight difficulty in one of the 12 functional and development domains. The national study on the prevalence of disability at this group of children, mainly aged 5-14 years old, showed the great need for integrated services. Therefore we are very happy today that this first model is starting exactly in Korca, and at the same time in Lezha as we are working to have the same model in 15 schools of pre-university education.

These development spaces will help about 9500 children among whom 151 are children with disabilities. We will only succeed if we have a strong cooperation with teachers, support teachers, parents, speech therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists and all the workers of psycho-social service. This is our common challenge in the implementation of this innovative model, which requires continuous training of the professionals and increasing their number in the educational institutions” – said World Vision Director for the Western Balkans, Eljona Boçe Elmazi.

 

Development spaces is an innovative model of integrated services, which is based on diverse needs in child education and development, that promotes the partnership between the school and professionals/specialist to provide integrated, psycho-social, development and therapeutic services within the school environment aiming child development with a particular focus on children with disabilities.

Moreover, thanks to the European Union funded project, “Increasing Civil Society Organizations' Capacities for Mainstreaming Rights of People with Disabilities in Albania”, currently 160 youth belonging to the age group 16 up to 24 years old from Korca, Berat, Dibra and Lezha are being trained on diversity, inclusiveness and volunteering. These young people have been selected to implement 8 mini-grants during 2019, developing in communities where they live psycho-social and awareness-raising activities to help people with disabilities. 

World Vision is a Christian Relief, Development and Advocacy organization. For two decades, we work with 32,000 children, in 220 in vulnerable communities. Since 1999, World Vision contributes throughout Albania with its programs to reduce violence, especially violence against children in families, communities, schools and among peers. World Vision aims to improve government practices for children, to increase child participation in decision-making, empowerment of children and youth as well as improvement of mechanisms and services for children.