Visiting the children at home
My name is Marie and I had my internship at Uhuru Mchanganyiko Primary School in Dar Es Salaam. At the school, they aimed to have home visits on Fridays for children with intellectual disabilities. Due to economic challenges, it was hard to implement. Despite this, we got the opportunity to visit the children at home once. This was one of my highlights during our stay in Tanzania.
Two of our students were visiting each other at free time and playing together.
Even though we stayed in Tanzania for three months, there could be some limitations on what we saw and experienced of the daily life for most Tanzanian people. This was because of limited time and safety concerns for us as visitors. We knew that some of the children most likely had a quite different day and household as us. By visiting them at home, we got the opportunity to see more of their background, know them better in different circumstances and research if there were any potential concerns that needed more supervision.
My overall impression was that several children with intellectual disabilities were excluded and stigmatized in the neighborhood. This was shown through calling bad names, being excluded in playing, seen as repulsive and other parents in the area not allowing them into their homes. It is needed to say that this was not the case for everyone, but all of the families we visited met some of these challenges in various degrees.
The first family we visited made the most impression on me. The child had attend at other schools earlier, but was told to quit because there were no room for his needs or disability. Both him and his parents showed great gratitude for the opportunity attend Uhuru Primary School. He had both showed great development in himself and recruited other children with intellectual disabilities after he started. His parents called him a good ambassador, and we agreed. The family showed great gratitude for the visit. They said that this visit of the teachers and visitors from other parts of the world, would have a wider effect on the community. By visible showing that this child was worth a visit and our wish to have fellowship with him, the stigmatization and prejudgments may have been breaking down within the community.
I felt both proud of being a part of this school by hearing the opportunities it gave, but also sad to hear that it is not guaranteed for these children to attend schools in general. I also felt honored to be a part of hopefully breaking down the stigmatizations and prejudgments, even though I wished there were no need for visits of teachers or foreigners to breaking them down. Despite all this, I think that this kind of work is necessary to implement a change. By raising awareness and work against stigmatization, I think we all can contribute to help children with disabilities receive their rights.
Me, Frida and Joakim got a lot of help from our colleagues Mr. Jonas and Mwalimu Grace.
The teachers made a form to research if more supervision was needed.