Dubai: From Monday to Friday, during school hours, students at Rashid Centre for People of Determination learn not only about numbers and letters. They are also taught vocational skills to develop their dexterity, gain future employability and even acquire entrepreneurial skills.
Students at Rashid Centre learn carpentry, printing and textiles, including weaving baskets, handbags, accessories, jewellery, and other items. They also grow their own vegetables and bake their own bread and cookies.
Sultan Atiq Sultan Airazi, 20, and Abdul Majeed Ali Ibrahim, 29 – both young Emiratis and long-time students at Rashid Centre, have been tending their own garden patch at the school backyard. Along with their classmates and peers, they produce from September to June a bountiful harvest of vegetables and salad items such as cucumber, lettuce, zucchini (courgette) as well as eggplant and tomato. They also cultivate a range of herbs, including basil and mint.
From cultivating to harvesting
Sandr Ugalde, head teacher at Rashid Centre, told Gulf News there are nine students – all boys and aged 18 years old and above – who do the gardening. “They are involved from cultivating the seeds to harvesting the yield,” she noted.
Students work on a vegetable patch one area at a time, dig the soil to remove weeds and level it. They cultivate seeds, put them on hydroponic grow beds, transplant them outdoors. They tend to the crops and water them daily until they are ready for harvesting, after some weeks.
The students then put the produce in boxes and some are sent to school benefactors as a token of appreciation for their continued support to the institution.
Pride in every produce
After harvesting and packing, the students go back to preparing the soil for another round of planting. But it is not a tedious and repetitive process because in every stage, the students get the opportunity to expand their skills.
“It (gardening course) also build their confidence and self-esteem,” noted Ugalde, adding: “They take a lot of pride in every produce because they tend to them from the start.”
“In the gardening workshop, we learn how to grow produce from seeds; how to maintain the health of the plants and harvest them. We are proud of what we accomplish and we are happy when people appreciate the vegetables we give them,” Airazi and Ibrahim added.
Healthy baking
Some female students, meanwhile, attend baking classes, where they also learn about healthy eating and meal preparations. They make sweet and savoury biscuits, and other bakery items. But they don’t use regular or plain flour. They produce bread and biscuits using quinoa, oats and barley.
Oasha, one of the female students, said she is proud that she can prepare a healthy piece of bread or cookie from scratch – from preparing the dough to baking it. Students also prepare healthy snacks for school visitors and basic meals for themselves. And as part of their school projects, they are encouraged to cook at home for their respective families.
Special education and employability
Mariam Othman, CEO of Rashid Centre for People of Determination, noted since inception in 1994, Rashid Centre has been providing a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to special education.
Othman said she’s proud that Rashid Centre has been instrumental in changing the public perception on people with special needs or what are called in the UAE as ‘People of Determination’. She noted: “Some 20 years ago, opportunities for people of determination were lacking. But now they are requirements in our society, thanks to the leadership of our rulers.”
“One of our biggest achievements at Rashid Centre is help raise awareness and educate people how to have a more inclusive society,” underlined Othman, adding: “The vocational skills we teach our students help them prepare for future employability, and even acquire entrepreneurial skills.”
