Category

Content

Name of Country

Nepal

Name of Organization

Child Nepal (CN)

Title of Project

Bridging Access to Education for Early Age Children with Disability (BRIDGE) Project

Type of Project

Project Objective

The overall objective of the project is to enhance the capacity of parents and teachers for early intervention in education for children with disabilities. As early childhood offers a critical stage in shaping the trajectory of any child’s holistic development, it is important to create a favorable condition for early age children with disabilities through early intervention from birth to pre-school. It contributes the Incheon Strategy to expand early intervention and education of children with disabilities (Goal 5) and its targets to enhance measure for early detection of, and intervention for, children with disabilities from birth to pre-school age (Target 5.A) and to halve the gap between children with disabilities and children without disabilities in enrolment rates (Target 5.B)

Project Period

June – November, 2023

Project Budget

20,984.46 USD

Target Region

Budanilkantha Municipality, Kathmandu, Nepal

Target Group

This project will directly benefit 156 children with disabilities from our project area. Disabled children in preschool targeted by this project will benefit from better quality and disabled friendly teaching learning environment classes. Similarly, around 1620 parents of the disabled will have enhanced capabilities to apply measures of early intervention for children with disabilities at home through trainings and parental sessions. 18 teachers of the targeted preschools will also benefit from specific disable friendly ECD training and support. Similarly, the communities of Budanilkantha Municipality which includes the siblings and parents of other children who will be reached by the awareness messages related to the importance of early intervention and school enrolment will of be benefitted from this project.

Necessity of Project

There are currently around 300 disabled children in Budanilkantha Municipality (referenced from the Investing in Early Childhood Development Project (IECD) of Child Nepal) who do not have proper access to education facilities and the ones who have do not have disable friendly environment to learn. The parents of disabled children lack proper knowledge and especially the least educated, have little to no awareness of the early intervention and its value and the special needs of disabled children for their psycho cognitive and holistic development. Similarly, schools and their teachers lack proper disable friendly infrastructures. Children’s Act 2018 of Nepal guarantees an inclusive education system, responsive to the needs of children with special learning needs. An effort to operationalize CRPD in the country, the Act Relating to Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2074 (2017) furthers the rights of children with disabilities to non-discrimination, learning support such as Braille, sign language and technological devices and provision of appropriate teaching and learning materials. The project is necessary for strengthening referral mechanisms for children with disabilities in our project target areas, increase awareness amongst parents and invest in the professional development of specialist teachers for inclusive classroom approaches.