Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC Therapist Strengthens Disability Training in Egypt

Gladys Terichow
June 5, 2006

Children born with disabilities, such as autism, cerebral palsy and mental disabilities, face a bleak future in Ezbet el Nakhle and other impoverished communities here.

"People don't have awareness how to deal with handicaps," said Tasuny (Sister) Maria of the Daughters of St. Mary, one of 15 sisters of the Coptic Orthodox Church providing a variety of health and educational services for families living in the northern suburbs of Cairo.

These services include a 40-bed hospital, medical clinics, schools, vocational training and a residential program for children with mental and physical disabilities.

Working alongside the sisters is an MCC service worker, Gloria Dueck of Arborg, Manitoba, an occupational therapist specializing in children's developmental needs.

Dueck works with children, teachers and parents in the Seeds of Hope School—a school for 70 children living with all levels and types of disabilities. Students are divided into small groups based on needs and disabilities.

"There are so many needs—the whole environment in Egypt is not geared for people with disabilities," explained Dueck, who has extended her three-year term by seven months to May 2007.

"Wheelchairs, walkers and splints are not designed for children and even if they were, where would you store them? The apartments are very small and there isn't room for anything extra."

Teachers working with the children are university graduates but they may not have an education degree or formal training on child development or disabilities. "Kids with disabilities need a lot of love," she explained. "The teachers have a natural ability to love the kids and show that love but they need training to understand the basic development of children."

Dueck provides individual support to children but the focus of her placement is working with teachers in classroom settings and formal workshops. "I'm an occupational therapist, not a teacher," she said explaining it has been both challenging and rewarding to learn the language and share her skills and knowledge with teachers who are eager to learn new skills.

To ensure that teachers will have ongoing access to information on theoretical and practical aspects on issues pertaining to child development and disabilities, she spends her evenings developing a written curriculum for use as a training resource when she leaves. The curriculum is being translated into the Arabic language and could be developed into a video presentation.

Dueck is also leaving another legacy—shortly after beginning her placement she realized that she could contribute to the children's nutritional needs through providing milk for a weekly meal. When her sister, Rose Dueck, heard about the need for milk she raised enough money so that the children could have milk every day.

This project has now expanded to a broader relief effort with MCC providing milk grants of $1,650 Cdn/$1,500 U.S. to the Seeds of Hope School, kindergarten and preschool programs run by the Daughters of St Mary. MCC's assistance also includes $1,650 Cdn/$1,500 U.S. milk grants to two other MCC partner organizations, a girls' home and a women's prison ministry. Both of these programs are ministries of the Coptic Evangelical church.

MCC has been placing service workers in Egyptian church settings since 1973. This involvements grew out of relationships MCC built when sending relief shipments in response to devastation caused by the 1967 war between Egypt and Israel.

MCC currently has 15 service workers and staff in Egypt, a country of 76 million. The population of Cairo is 17 million. Egyptian Christians represent about six per cent of the population in this predominantly Muslim country.

 

Gladys Terichow is a writer for MCC.