There are seven community day-care centres located in different villages and refugee camps in the Bethlehem Governorate. These centres serve children with different types of disability, providing them with rehabilitation and special educational services in the areas of self help skills, activities of daily living, behaviour modification, motor development, language development as well as cognitive and personality development, in order to prepare them for inclusion in the mainstream of education.

They also serve preschool children in the annex kinder gardens, primary school children in the annex primary classes and school age pupils with low achievement (who come to the centres in the afternoon shift) through individual educational intervention plans dealing with the major subjects of Arabic and Math.

These community centres are:

• El-Khader Centre regularly serves around 45 children with physical and mental disabilities, ages 3 to 16; around 100 preschool children in the kindergarten, ages 3 to 5; and around 100 low achieving pupils, ages 6 to 12, per year.
• Nahalin Centre regularly serves 50 children with physical, mental and hearing disabilities, ages 3 to 16; around 200 school age children in the primary grades (1 to 6), ages 6 to 12; and around 100 low achieving pupils, ages 6 to 12.
• Deheisheh Centre regularly serves around 866 children with hearing and speech disorders as well as those with mental and physical disabilities of all ages, not only at the centre but also through their outreach program.
• Beit-Sahour Centre regularly serves around 40 adolescents and adults with mental disability and behavioral problems, ages 12 to 35.
• Beit-Fajar Centre regularly serves around 40 children with hearing impairment and those with physical and mental disabilities, ages 3 to 16 – around 100 preschool and primary school children, ages 3 to 15.
• Obeidieh Centre regularly serves around 35 children with physical and mental disabilities, ages 3 to 16; around 120 preschool children, ages 3 to 5; around 25 1st grade pupils; and around 100 low achieving pupils, ages 6 to 12.
• Zatara Centre regularly serves 30 children with physical and mental disabilities, ages 3 to 16; around 100 preschool children, ages 3 to 5; and around 100 low achieving pupils, ages 6 to 12.

Besides, there is the Children’s Cultural Centre in Bethlehem which is an educational, cultural and leisure centre, that serves a large number of school age children and young people in the Bethlehem area (approximately 1500 per year), including those with special needs, ranging between six to eighteen years of age. <

The main aim of establishing this centre is to promote child rights and enhance children’s and young people’s optimal development, particularly the culturally disadvantaged, by providing opportunities for self expression through a wide range of physical, educational, cultural, social, recreational and leisure activities. It is characterized by its arts and handicrafts as well as its prominent folklore dancing groups.

Rationale

The rationale for establishing the community day-care centres CDCs is to improve the quality of life of children with special needs and promote their total inclusion into all aspects of community life, using community resources. From this perspective, Bethlehem Arab Society For Rehabilitation “BASR” has recently re-established its CDCs to share the same site with regular kindergartens and primary schools aiming at including children with special needs to learn side by side with their peers at an early age.

BASR is also empowering the local committees, who are directly responsible for running the community day-care centres, to mobilize their communities for the development of their centres.

The local committees are usually elected by their community, comprising parents or family members of persons with special needs, women’s committees, municipality representatives, professionals and other community members. They have already established close work relationships and cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Local Municipalities, Women’s Unions and others. Some CDCs are licensed by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, others by the Ministry of Interior and some are working under the umbrella of women’s unions.

The community day-care centres follow the curriculum adopted by the Ministry of Education for educable preschool and primary age children in order to prepare them for regular schooling. Besides, professionals from BASR, specialized in special education, who are responsible for teacher training and supervision at the centres devised a special curriculum for children with special needs to promote their independence and enhance their optimal development. BASR periodically provides the CDCs with educational materials, text books, educational toys and games, videotapes as well as technical aids.

BASR annually runs different training programs to upgrade the skills and expertise of the staff working at the community day-care centres introducing new approaches for educational intervention. Regular visits to the community day-care centres are usually rendered by specialists in Special Education and other professionals from BASR where Support and advisory services as well as inservice training are provided to all staff. Staff meetings are also regularly held to discuss relevant issues, administrative and professional.

Several meetings are usually held with the parents of the special needs children enrolled at the community day-care centres to promote their active involvement in their children’s educational programs and the social activities held at the community centres, in addition to the home visits rendered by the Head Teachers of the centres and the specialists from BASR. Parents are also encouraged to visit the community centres to keep up-to-date with their children’s progress and be able to support them at home.

Moreover, several meetings are usually held with the local committees, women committees and other community members to motivate them to take on more responsibility for their community day- care centres and raise funds to cover their needs through various activities.

The special needs children enrolled at the community day-care centres are duly provided with the needed medical and rehabilitation services as well as the necessary technical aids that promote their independence and facilitate their inclusion.