We have been supporting children with disabilities in Tanzania for over 15 years, advocating for their inclusion into early childhood education.
The “Take All My Friends To School” project increased the access, quantity and quality of inclusive education for children with disabilities through adapting the child-to-child approach to inclusive education.
85% of children with disabilities in Tanzania are outside the education system, with more and more children dropping out due to the lack of support for children with disabilities, which is severely lacking and poorly resourced.
We are trying to change this.
We have enrolled 370 children with disabilities in Mbeya into mainstream inclusive education.
We have engaged over 1,300 community members through disability awareness events.
We have modified 9 mainstream schools to improve accessibility, including the creation of three inclusive libraries for children with disabilities.
Network Member Child Support Tanzania (CST) has realized the construction of their new inclusive Early Childhood Education school in Mbeya, Tanzania with support from Able Child. This model inclusive-school consists of accessible classrooms, toilets, and a bespoke physical therapy unit. The development of the school has led to the development of a physical and occupational therapy program at the school, as well as training for parents at home.
Here, parents have received vital support to perform basic exercises with their children, which prevents children with disabilities from missing school and therefore reduces the inequalities that exist between children with and without disabilities. Through the lessons from these inclusive education projects at Child Support Tanzania, we continue we have been able to develop evidence of what works best for children with disabilities in schools, and incorporate this into projects in neighbouring mainstream schools.
Working with Child Support Tanzania (CST) provides inclusive early year’s education to the most vulnerable children in the Mbeya Region, in Southwest Tanzania.
See the impact we are having in the other countries where we work.
