Like every year in March,
we celebrate Teacher’s Day (9 March).This year, we wanted to make it
a very special event: the Director announced to all students that we are
having at Idad a special version of the famous and popular TV music-talent
show, “Superstar”(the Arab version of “The American Idol”), and all
students who wish to audition should be ready for the final competition on
the 8th of March. Auditions took place in a very joyful and
relaxing atmosphere, the students were absolutely delighted to go on stage
and perform (in playback) their favorite songs and imitate their favorite
singers…The result was unexpected : we discovered some real talents among
our students, and we were finally able to organize our “gala-music-show” in
the occasion of Teachers’ day in our theatre, where everybody danced,
cheered, sang, screamed in joy, upon “hearing” and “watching” their
favorite stars live on stage !!!
On 12, 13 and 14 March
2007, the Friends of the Disabled Association held its Spring Bazaar
at the Dunes Complex (Holiday Inn /Verdun) where our students
participated in the reception of guests and the sale of their products.
Some of our products at the Spring bazaar
On March 21, the Director
invited all the students’ mothers to come to Idad to celebrate together
Mother’s day, along with their children.
On March 29, we celebrated
Easter by organizing our traditional Egg-hunt for our younger
students while all classes prepared small Easter-baskets with chocolate
eggs, specially produced by Idad. Simultaneously, our special gift-baskets
(for Mothers’day as well as Easter) were being promoted in the local market.
On March 31, the Friends of the Disabled Association held its Elections
for the new Board of Directors which in turn re-elected Dr. Moussa
Charafeddine as President of the Association and Mrs Najwa Maher
as Vice-President.
April was a very
special month, marked by two main events: Idad’s active participation in the
Very Special Arts workshop held in Cairo (Egypt) from the 16th
till the 20th of April 2007, and our trip to Denmark from
the 26th till the 29th of April 2007.
- Funded by the USA
Embassy, Ms Tania Abdel Ahad, our program coordinator, accompanied by
Mrs Najwa Maher, greatly benefited from the Very Special Arts workshop,
and upon her return, gave us a detailed presentation of the event,
including demonstrations of activities and their underlying objectives,
in the context of artistic creativity and it was agreed to emphasize art
activities as an integral part of our educational program in the coming
year.
Students at work in an art-class at Idad
Still in the
context of art, five of our students, accompanied by Idad Director, Mrs Rita
Merhej, and her assistant, Mrs Sana Fakih, were invited by the Danish
Ministry of Culture and the Danish Centre for Cooperation and
Development to the Levuk Centre for Children with Special Needs
in Hillerod (Denmark) to participate in the Open Art
Seminar which hosted several international art experts. Thanks to the
wonderful hospitality of our hosts, namely Mr Peter Campbell
Bensted , Theater Director of the Artists-in-the-House Project for
Hillerod City Council, and Mr Benjamin Goings, Director of
the Levuk Center, we spent 4 unforgettable days in Denmark,
participating in the art workshops on a daily basis and enjoying the
absolutely delightful social atmosphere at the Levuk Centre. As part of the
Seminar’s activities, Mrs Merhej gave a thorough presentation on the
importance of dance and music pedagogy in the education of children with
special needs, and our five students gave two astounding dance performances
in front of a large audience at the Levuk Centre, under the auspices of the
Deputy-Mayor of Hillerod who came especially to the event to greet us.
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