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| SID School Outreach, at Amazing Grace School. PC: SID Media |
The main focus of the School Outreach program by Strength in Disability Organisation (SID) was to promote inclusive education by addressing challenging disability issues which will cause basic and secondary school students and teachers to appreciate persons with disabilities and assist them participate fully in all educative activities. In the first semester of the 2019/2020 academic year, our outreach targeted four basic schools: African Faith School, Amazing Grace Preparatory, Kotei R/C JHS and Deduako M/A JHS, all of which are located in thew metropolitan area of Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana.
AT AFRICAN FAITH SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY, 25TH SEPTEMBER, 2019
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| Our resource person engaging students. Courtesy of SID Media |
Our school outreach endeavour first went to African Faith School, a primary school located in Deduako. The school administration welcomed us warmly and arranged for us to meet both students and staff. We arrived at the school at 9:00am to kick start our presentation.
Mr. Frederick Osei, founder and president of SID introduced the organisation to the students and told the students the purpose of the meeting.
Topics that were presented included “Introduction to Disability”, which was delivered by Clinton, a second-year Disability and Rehabilitation student and member of the School Outreach Department (SOD). He enlightened the audience on the meaning of Disability, the types of disability and the causes of disability.
In promoting inclusive education, Miss. Benedicta Antwi Asamoah the SOD coordinator, presented on 'Stigmatisation and Name Calling'. She elaborated the meaning of stigmatisation, types of stigmatisation, the effects of stigmatisation on persons with disability and how to manage and prevent stigmatisation on persons with disability. She also taught the students some of the proper names to call persons with disability.
Mr. Unity Ampeh asked the students questions concerning what they have been taught of which they responded positively.
After the interactive session with the students and teachers, we expressed our gratitude to them for giving us the opportunity to educate them such on relevant topics.
The outreach was successful and we believe that some misconceptions relating to disability issues were dealt with.
AT AMAZING GRACE PREPARATORY SCHOOL ON 25TH SEPTEMBER, 2019
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| Our resource person engaging students. Courtesy of SID Media |
Leaving African Faith School, we proceeded to Amazing Grace Preparatory (also located at Deduako) and continued with the public education on disability issues.
Mr. Frederick Osei briefly explained to the students what is meant by disability and introduced the first speaker Mr. Clinton, who vividly explained disability and its causes.
Miss. Benedicta continued with Stigmatisation and its effect on students with disabilities, as well as Name Calling of persons with disability (PwDs) and the negative impact it leaves them with.
Students of the school were asked to air out names they usually call disabled persons with. The inappropriate names they mentioned were corrected as they brought them out. They thus learnt the right way to address PwDs.
Miss Rebecca, a member of the team, also addressed Child-trafficking and Child Abuse issues since we realised most children in the vicinity were prone to these circumstances.
Mr. Unity Ampeh of SOD gave a summary of what was discussed so far and advised the students to appreciate persons with disabilities especially those who are their colleagues in order to promote inclusive education.
President Frederick Osei conclusively asked students questions about matters made in the presentations, and majority of the students answered satisfactorily.
We finally prayed for them, took pictures with them, thanked the teachers and headteachers for giving us the platform to educate them on these pertinent issues.
AT KOTEI R/C JHS ON FRIDAY, 27TH SEPTEMBER, 2019.
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| From L-R: Untiy, Benedict, Frederick, Rebecca. Courtesy of SID Media |
Our next school outreach was at Kotei R/C JHS, located at Kotei, Kumasi. The school leadership was apparently glad to have us there. And the headmistress, more so, was enthused about the topic for discussion.
We arrived at the premises at 12:00pm to commence our activity for the day. After setting up the expectant audience and giving introductory talks, the first topic, “Introduction to Disability” was delivered by SOD member Mr. Clinton, who expounded the meaning of disability and the types of disability.
Mr. Famous Gyamfi, the SID Vice President then continued the presentation by discussing the Causes of Disability.
Miss Benedicta Antwi Asamoah, presented on stigmatization. She elaborated on the meaning of stigmatization, types of stigmatization, the effects of stigmatisation on persons with disability and how to manage and prevent stigmatisation on persons with disability.
Miss Naomi Nartey, a member of the SOD and the Street Outreach coordinator then continued with Name Calling. She discussed the various negative name tags that have been given to different kinds of disability. She then taught the students the right words to call persons with disability.
The interactive engagement was instructed by a sudden heavy down pour of rain. We therefore couldn’t discuss with them the topic of Child Trafficking.
The students very cooperative though it was obvious they were ready to learn more. Negative perceptions about persons with disability were tackled. They contributed much and asked a lot of questions making the course a successful one.
The rest of the team members supported the presenters in terms of answering questions and taking pictures. After the post-presentation activities, we left the promises till another opportune time.
AT DEDUAKO M/A JHS FRIDAY, 12TH OCTOBER, 2019
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| Courtesy of SID Media |
Deduako M/A JHS was the last school we visited as school outreach team members. The management of the school welcomed us especially the headmistress. She was happy that we had a rarely-talked-about topic to present.
After arriving at the school at 11:30am and having a few pre-presentation talks, we started the presentation at 1:00pm.
Mr Famous Gyamfi, SID Vice President opened the the main agenda with the topic, 'Introduction to Disability'. He enlightened them on the meaning of disability and the types of disability and then continued with the causes of disability.
Miss Benedicta Antwi Asamoah presented on stigmatization. She elaborated the meaning of stigmatisation, types of stigmatisation, the effects of stigmatisation on persons with disability and how to manage and prevent stigmatisation on persons with disability. She then continued with Name Calling and discussed the various unpleasant names that have been given to different kinds of disability. She then taught the students the right words to call persons with disability.
Miss Abena Achiaa Boamah discussed with them the crucial issues of Child Trafficking and How to Prevent Child Trafficking.
The students answered all questions that were asked them, cooperated effectively and were ready to learn more. They also asked more questions in order to get a better understanding of the issues presented. Most negative perception about persons with disability was changed.
They contributed much and asked a lot of questions making the course a successful one. The rest of the team members supported the presenters in terms of answering questions and taking pictures. At the end of the session, group pictures were taken with students and staff.
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