UAE | Education
Abu Dhabi centre brightens pupils' futures
Facility helps improve disabilities, gears people with Special needs to find employment.
- By Dina El Shammaa, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:43 June 5, 2009
- Image Credit: Ravindranath/Gulf News
- Redwan Bou Abdullah sits quietly while Mariam Al Za'abi smiles as their mothers savour the caring atmosphere at the Future Centre in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi: In spite of depending on a wheelchair for mobility, 7-year-old Emirati Mariam Al Za'abi asked to continue her studies in a private school with other children her age.
Mariam was born with cerebral palsy - a condition in which one-half of the body is weakened and paralysed - and was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy - a neuromuscular disease that results in the shortening of muscles causing weak mobility.
Until she was admitted to the Future Centre for Special Needs, Abu Dhabi, Mariam had problems using her arms and hands properly. However, with proper physiotherapy she can now move both hands and take up to 20 steps using a walker.
When Mariam first arrived at the centre, she displayed cognitive ability and potential to cope with academic subjects such as mathematics, English, reading and speaking, and gradually grew responsive to social, motor, and physical skills.
Maria Cruzada, vocational teacher at the centre, tailor made an individual education plan for Mariam which helped suit her individual needs and helped her progress in different areas.
"During one of the speech therapy classes, Mariam asked me why it was necessary for her to attend that class. That's when I felt that she was a very special child who thrives for challenge and achievement," Cruzada said.
Mariam's condition did not stop her from asking her mum to look into transferring her to another school where she can be around her cousins and other children her age.
"Mariam asked me why she couldn't be in the same school as her cousins, and that's when I immediately decided to transfer her to a private school," Phatma Rashed, Mariam's mother, said. "Looking for the proper school wasn't an easy procedure, some schools didn't want to take Mariam's responsibility and other villa schools didn't have the proper facilities for disabled children, so I decided to give Mariam the responsibility of walking up to a school administrator and to personally ask if they would accept her," Phatma said.
The school examined Mariam and concluded that her physical limitation is not a hindrance as long as she is mentally able to cope with school-work.
"I foresee a successful future for Mariam; she actually knows what she wants to do from now, and that's to become a doctor. She checks people's pulses and asked the centre's nurse if she could have an extra stethoscope to keep for herself," Mariam's teacher Cruzada, said.
When Redwan Bou Abdullah from Algeria, 18, enrolled at the centre in December 2003, he was nervous, subdued, had his mood swings, and refused to participate in any activity.
Redwan was born with a congenital learning disability which involves delayed speech and poor reading and writing skills, however, due to his will power, Redwan now works as an office boy in one of the most prestigious companies in Abu Dhabi.
"... After being one of the shyest kids in the centre, he's now very social. Not to mention receiving various awards in basketball and bowling at the special needs Olympics," Mowfaq Mustafa, Director/Board member and Defectologist at the Future Centre, said.
Information: Future Centre facts and figures
- The centre's pupils are comprised of 50 per cent Emiratis and 50 per cent expatriates
- There are 184 pupils at the centre, of which 45 are above the age of 18, the rest are between 3-18 years n In the past one-and-a-half years five pupils from the centre have found jobs
- In the last six years 47 pupils have been integrated into regular schools
Suitable programme
As more schools are starting to accommodate special needs pupils, awareness regarding special needs is improving, Mowfaq Mustafa, Director/Board Member, Defectologist at the Future Centre for Special Needs, Abu Dhabi, said, adding that private schools who accept special needs children must make sure they have a suitable programme that best suits the pupil's condition.
Public schools have their own curriculum for special needs pupils that has been introduced by the Ministry of Education.
Schools must make sure they have a psychologist available in case the pupil needs to share a thought or feeling, and provide facilities making mobility easier.
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