In January, we all
enjoyed the long-awaited “central-heating” installment! It was so beautiful
to watch the storms and winds blowing outside, and hear the heavy rain-drops
hit our beautiful sky-light while we were all warm and cozy , strolling
around the floors and working peacefully in the classes at Idad… During this
month, we launched the project of “Special Presents Baskets”:
in the Carpentry and Basket Production training workshops.
The Special Baskets in exhibit
Our students prepared a
wide variety of wooden trays, encrusted with mosaic stripes, and several
shapes and sizes of straw baskets decorated with a vivid selection of glass
beads; those were filled later with special occasion items to fit the tastes
of the customers and wrapped beautifully with colored ribbons and small
decorative accessories. The project turned out to be a great success: as the
final products were exhibited in our big reception hall, many of our guests
were impressed and in a very short time, all of the products were sold out.
We thus had to increase the production rate, getting ready for the big
occasions in the coming months: Valentine’s Day, Teacher’s day, Mothers’
Day, Easter, etc
Our campaigns for promoting public awareness about mental disability
continued this month where we hosted and actively participated in the
Seminar on Down Syndrome, organized by Sesobel / Balamand University
(Mental Health Department) on January 13, in our Waleed Ben Talal
Auditorium.
A view of the participants in the Down Syndrome Seminar
Idad School also launched a
training program in collaboration with the Lebanese University
towards the end of January in order to provide students in the L.U.
Psychology Department with training opportunities in the field of clinical
assessment and design of behavior-modification programs for children with
behavior and personality disorders. It was agreed to start the program by
mid-February 2007.
By February, we had
received all the equipments and materials needed for the opening of our new
Early Intervention Unit, a section which is specially designed
to receive very young children with developmental disabilities (below the
age of 3 years), offering them basic therapeutic services as well as
guidance and counseling for their parents. Unfortunately, due to the
acceleration of the tragic events in Lebanon, our donor, the US embassy in
Lebanon, preferred to postpone the official inauguration of this Unit.
However, this did not prevent us from activating it by carrying out all the
preliminary assessment procedures for future student-candidates to be
enrolled next year.
Simultaneously, we decided to make use of some of the donated materials,
namely the wide selection of the multi-disciplinary testing tools, by
launching our Out-Patient Consultation Service
which provides assessment, diagnosis, family counseling and referral for all
children and adolescents with intellectual impairments, learning
difficulties, psychological disorders, autism, etc.
In February, we also launched our new Special Sports Training Program
with Dr. Bachir Abdel Khalek who has a vast experience with
the Special Olympics activities.
Idad students enjoying competition games
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