Print

With regard to attending the specific needs of mentally handicapped and autistic children our objectives are the following:

 

We intend to OPEN the Rainbow School at Irente. The Rainbow School is planned to be a center for training and education of mentally handicapped and autistic children and youth. Children from Irente and Lushoto area will be provided with a good educational training according to their individual needs. By opening a school for mentally handicapped and autistic children, we do not claim that we are going to cure the children so that their disability will disappear. What we intend to do is to use our time, our knowledge and our experience in helping these children to develop as far as their capacity allows them. By doing so, there will be hope for a better future for these children. 

We intend to INCLUDE parents in educating/training children who are mentally handicapped and autistic. For these children, habilitation programs that include training at homes are important. At the same time, families with such children will learn how to cope with their situation. By being involved in helping their children, the parents’ attitudes will change from despair to hope. 

We intend to PROMOTE awareness in the surrounding community that it is everyone’s duty to respect the rights of children with mental handicaps or autism and support them. The Biblical faith that all human beings are created in the image of God is an important basis in advocating for these children’s right to be met with respect and dignity. Moreover, all children in Tanzania have the right to attain education that will enable them to improve their life quality, depending on their ability. As part of the Tanzanian community, these children have the right to get alternative education/training. Through the work at the Rainbow School, we hope to change people’s attitude concerning mentally handicapped and autistic members of society and create a sense of responsibility towards them

We intend to start an OUTREACH PROGRAM because the need of special education is very high and we will not be able to receive all the intellectual impaired children in the Rainbow School. We strive to COOPERATE with teachers and students in the surrounding area in order to improve the teaching of mentally handicapped students who continue to attend ordinary primary schools. When we open the Rainbow School at Irente, we will be able to visit the surrounding schools and advice the teachers. When it comes to students in these schools, we will help them to understand that children who are mentally handicapped and autistic deserve respect and support, not ridicule and bullying. We will therefore talk with the students in the schools about these matters. The students can also be invited to visit the Rainbow School at Irente together with their teachers so that they may see how we work with mentally handicapped and autistic children there. In this way, the Rainbow School will convey a model of a holistic perspective that will act as a catalyst in the process of integrating weak community members into the society.

We have the ambition to ESTABLISH a special education center with high quality. Many teachers have expressed their concern about the fact that they do not know how to reach and help mentally handicapped and autistic students. They admit that they lack the knowledge on how to handle these children, especially when those children become restless or anxious. For children who are multiple handicapped (i.e. physically as well as mentally), the situation of the teachers is even more difficult. During the vacations, we will run short courses for teachers who are interested in acquiring such knowledge. We understand that there are already teachers in schools outside the district of Lushoto who have been trained on how to teach intellectually impaired pupils. These teachers might already be working with such children. Yet, the teachers might need to learn better teaching methods than the ones they have and exchange experiences with other teachers. Above all, the Rainbow School will be able to provide skills on how to teach autistic children. So far, in the whole of Tanzania there is no training for teachers an how to work with autistic children. Therefore, the Rainbow School will serve as an "on job training center".