It was a lovely 95 degrees in Doha the other day, 90 degrees
today!
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| Souq Market |
I am happy to be
representing Salus and the College of Education and Rehabilitation and
upholding the vision and mission as well! ( As, we know, Salus means health and well-being, and the
College of Education and Rehabilitation Vision statement is: “To enhance the
quality of life of individuals who have, or are at risk for, disabilities
through excellence in interdisciplinary education, service delivery and research,
and to increase the numbers, diversity and leadership roles of education and
rehabilitation professionals worldwide”.)
The College’s vision and mission are in
alignment with the mission of the Shafallah Center, which is: “ Based on the mission of Qatar Foundation for
Social Work, we help people with intellectual disabilities and autism by
providing model services in the State of Qatar, in the areas of education,
rehabilitation, community awareness, and human rights support in order to
achieve more independent life and to activate inclusion in the society.”
The Center sits beside a vision center which
I hope to visit next week. Both the Shafallah Center and Al Noor, the vision
center, are government funded programs.
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| Inside the Shafallah Center |
I have been working
with a group of international experts in the area of program and behavioral
organization brought in to assist the Shafallah Center in the first step in
their holistic organizational assessment and evaluation process to enhance
their overall service to their students with disabilities and their families.
Of course, I also work directly with the wonderful members of the Shaffalah
Center staff who come from all around the middle east, including Tunisia,
Jordan, Egypt, and of course Qatar! The international team of evaluators that I
am working with have been vigorously observing, reading translated documents, interviewing multiple stakeholders, and discussing at length in order to
create a detailed final report with recommendations for improvements for the
administration. We will have our reports
in by the end of next week.
The weekend begins here on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I present my first of four presentations at their 2nd Annual Conference on Autism. I am including a photo of some Shafallah staff and international experts (and myself!). And, additional photos from the Center and some for flavor!
The weekend begins here on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I present my first of four presentations at their 2nd Annual Conference on Autism. I am including a photo of some Shafallah staff and international experts (and myself!). And, additional photos from the Center and some for flavor!
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| Shafallah staff, international experts and myself |
Hello Barbara, and thanks for sharing this experience with us!
ReplyDeleteI bet some of the kids in the center have been identified as having a visual impairment...If so, I wonder what services they receive.
Looking forward to learning more when you return.
Fabiana