Rainbow School

Activities At rainbow School-2004

Details

The activities for opening the school are planned as follows

 

Planning the activity rooms:
This work was done in March 2003 together with personnel from the department of neurology at the KCMC. Dr. Tina Oneko (pediatrician) and Ms. Ann-Sofie Norlén (physiotherapist) visited the site of the building and gave constructive recommendations on how to use it

Renovating the buildings
Some repairs within the building were done in May 2003. The real renovation work started in the beginning of February 2004 and is going on (see special photo page).

The estimated costs of all the renovation work adds to a total of about Tshs. 30,780,000/= (22,800 Euro). To open the school at first we will not need to complete the renovation totally. The renovation of the essential parts is almost completed (July 2004).

See also special section: Housing.

Preparing personnel

We expect to recruit and/or train as follows:

  • 10 teaching staff-members: 4 special teachers and 6 teaching assistants
  • 8 non-teaching staff-members: 1 gardener/herdsman, 1 accountant clerk, 1 cook, 1 cooking assistant (responsible also for cleaning) and 2 watchmen. A nurse will be shared with the Irente Children’s Home. Since we will not have a car in the beginning, we will cooperate with the Irente School of the Blind and/or the Irente Children’s Home. Therefore we will have to pay only a part of their salaries.
  • Since there is a Chaplainry for Irente institutions, the holder of that position will be included in the staff team.

The four teachers will be trained in special education. The Ministry of Education is going to pay the salary of those teachers. The government of Tanzania has the responsibility of providing education to these children whereas churches and church institutions assist the government in this task. The ELCT-NED already has a good experience in working together with the government to promote education in the region of Tanga and therefore we are convinced that this cooperation will continue when we open the Rainbow School at Irente.

We have mentioned before that whereas there are courses for teaching children who are mentally handicapped in Tanzania, there are no courses on how to help children with autism. So we expect none of the teachers we receive from the Ministry of Education to be a specialist in autism. Luckily a Special School in Germany, the Wichernschule in Minden has invited one of our teachers for six weeks to get some training in working with autistic children and young adults. This visit will take place in autumn this year.

In November 2003, two teachers who have been working with autistic children in Patandi School near Arusha visited the ELCT-NED. Their experience has been useful to us as we prepare for the Rainbow School at Irente.

In September we will receive a consultant from Germany sent by the United Evangelical Mission (UEM). The woman will be in Lushoto for six months and will support and advise us in preparing the opening of the school and training the staff. After this term a decision will be made on whether the UEM will send us a long-term co-worker.
The other teaching staff (teaching assistants) might have no training in teaching or caring for mentally handicapped children. Therefore it will be our responsibility to train them for their work with the children at the Rainbow School at Irente.

Equipment and furnishing

With regard to equipment, these may be divided into two categories: that which is going to be used for teaching and other equipment that will facilitate the functioning of the school.

  • Teaching equipment include four computers for the students, stationery, utensils for painting, music and rhythm instruments, cookery and carpentry tools, etc.

  • Other equipment includes one car that is going to pick up the children living in Lushoto from their homes in the morning and take them back after school. In the beginning we will not be able to purchase a car. There will be arrangements with other Irente Institutions to use their cars to pick up the students in the beginning.

The estimated costs for the furnishing and equipment of the school are Tshs. 14,445,000/= (10,700 Euro). The costs of the car will be about Tshs. 67,500,000/= (50,000 Euro).

The estimated total of the preparations of the Rainbow School add up to:

  • Renovating: 30,780,000/= (22,800 Euro)
  • Furnishing and Equipment: 14,445,000/= (10,700 Euro)
  • Car: 67,500,000/= (50,000 Euro)

TOTAL: 112,725,000/= (83,500 Euro)

Registering pupils

We planned to officially advertise in the middle of this year in Lushoto area about the possibility to train children with mental handicaps and learning autism at the Rainbow School. Students will be received regardless of their religious background. To start with, only 15 to 20 children are going to be admitted to the school.

As it is now there are already 19 children listed whose relatives came forward to us. In any case we will ask people to have their mentally handicapped or autistic children registered for the outreach program and to get an idea of the actual need here in the area.

Preparing Individual Education Programs

First assessments with some of the children were already done when the two special teachers from Arusha were here in November 2003.

In the last quarter of this year we are planning to perform additional assessments on those children who will be admitted to the Rainbow School. In this task we are going to involve experts from KCMC and Bombo Regional Hospital together with the teachers. Through the assessments, it will be possible to make Individual Education Programs for each student.

Parents’ participation

As mentioned before we are planning to involve the parents in our work. In connection with the visit of the special teachers from Arusha and the first assessments, we held several meetings with some of the parents that had their children listed.

In January we held another parents’ meeting at the location of the future Rainbow School at Irente. There they were informed about the project plans in detail. The parents showed a lot of interest and emphasized their willingness to contribute in some way for the school. On that day, a temporary parents’ committee was formed which will organize the parents’ contribution.

In the end of March there was another parents’ meeting where they received basic information on the different mental handicaps and autism and how to help their children in a better way.

The parents were also involved in planning the fundraising in Irente and Lushoto Parish (see section FUNDRAISING)

Opening the Rainbow School
We intend to open the Rainbow School at Irente in January 2005. We will start with not more than 20 students. Even though we are aware that the actual need is higher we know that we have to start with a reasonable number of students and increase the number as soon as possible. The Outreach Program we intend to start in 2006.