“We Care” is a three-year project that aims to activate a multi-sectoral programme to promote access to high-quality services (prevention, diagnosis, health, community rehabilitation and socio-educational inclusion) for children and young people with disabilities and their families in the following districts of the Iringa region.
Rights and accessibility to school and rehabilitation services for minors with disabilities in Iringa District
The project “No one left behind: rights and accessibility to school and rehabilitation services for minors with disabilities in Iringa district, Tanzania”, realized by IBO Italy and financed by Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, sees the involvement of a plurality of subjects in the partnership, both public and private in Italy, and in Tanzania the collaboration with the Iringa District and Nyumba A.L.I. a local non-profit association of parents.
Education is not a way to escape poverty,
it is a way of fighting it.
Julius Nyerere
Founding father of Tanzania
Education. Disability. Children’s rights.
The specific objective of these projects is to strengthen the basic services for children with disabilities in the Iringa District through a participatory approach of all the actors of the educating community (school, day centers and families) to get to contribute to the inclusion social responsibility for minors with disabilities.
The initiatives aim to intervene on the causes of exclusion with a bottom-up and participatory approach that involves all target groups.
Iringa school district, Nyumba Azimio Lenye Imani (Nyumba A.L.I.), Call Africa ONG, CO.P.E., Shivyawata and Nyololo – KCA healthcare centre.
ARCO Action Research for CO-development, PIN S.c.r.l., Cooperation Center of the University of Ferrara, Municipality of Ferrara, Services for inclusion of disadvantaged children, ISAAC Italy, Vaccari Institute of Rome, Helpicare by Didacare, Nyumba Ali and Social Cooperative “La Città Verde”.
Italian Agency for Development Cooperation
The geographical area of intervention corresponds to the two administrative districts, urban and rural, of the Region of Iringa, a city located in the centre of Tanzania ten hours drive from the coast and the capital Dar es Salaam. A total of 405,377 inhabitants, 78% of whom live in rural areas, 52% are women and over 50% are under 19 years of age.
7.8% of the population has a disability, 80% of them live in rural areas. It is estimated that about 3% of the school-age population has a disability, and most of them are completely excluded from school services and society.
There are several elements that do not allow children and people with disabilities to fully enjoy their rights: low preparation of teachers on disability, difficulties in accessing care, rehabilitation and education services, poverty, presence of barriers for the usability of the structures, lack of poor or technological aids for education and communication, false popular beliefs and lack of community awareness and involvement on issues related to people with disabilities.
CHILDREN (2-18 YEARS) WITH DISABILITIES
STUDENTS (15-25 YEARS)
ASSISTANTS IN DAY CARE CENTRES, FAMILY HOMES AND SCHOOLS
PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
TEACHERS (20 WITH DISABILITIES)
PEOPLE IN THE RURAL AREA OF IRINGA