Saturday, April 2, 2011

Chifwema Village School and Veronica




Yesterday we traveled an hour or so outside of Lusaka to the Chifwema Village. Mikala’s school, Beulini, provides outreach to three village schools including Chifwema. Once a quarter Mikala travels to each of these village schools to monitor their activities and offer support. The Head Master and one of the teachers at the school met us. They serve 450 students and have 10 unpaid volunteer teachers from the village – one classroom at the school is a special needs classroom and 5 children attend school in this classroom; 13 other children with special needs receive home based education where a teacher goes to the family home and assists the families with instructional ideas. For some children home based education is all that is possible because they are unable to make the physical journey walking to school (many children walk as much as 3 miles one way to get to school).

We walked to one of the family homes to meet a 14 year old child with autism who receives home based education. This was a remarkable experience. Veronica was completely included in her family home and her community. When Mikala first started helping the family Veronica’s mother would keep Veronica contained in a hut when she went to work in the fields, went to church or was away from the family home. Now Veronica has access to the village and the community embraces their responsibility of ensuring Veronica gets home to her family safely. She attends church and is now trying to go to the school classroom (instead of home based education). In very practical ways Veronica is being taught and her family has identified things that comfort her and assist her with learning (e.g. old plastic soda bottles with beans in it that rattle, kicking a plastic soda bottle to redirect behavior, pounding maze). We spent some time talking about strategies the family could use to teach her how to put on her own clothes and to teach her how to eat more then a two types of food. Simple suggestions such as using short word phrases instead of long drawn out explanations and requests (e.g. “Veronica up now,” “beans gone”) also how they could reinforce and shape desired behavior while eliminating undesired behavior. These were concepts that were knew to them but at the same time clearly they had figured many things out to get Veronica to learn new skills and be a part of her community.

Veronica has a couple of jobs. She pounds the maze to make their staple food enshima and she sweeps the area outside of their homes. She is extremely fond of her two older sisters and enjoys having her hair combed and braided – these are things she lets her family know that she wants and needs. One of the things we will develop for the family is a simple communication board. While Veronica seems to understand most words, she does not speak any words and communicates with gestures and sounds. A communication board may help her to learn how to express to her family what she wants.

What a wonderful opportunity to grow and learn from one another.

More later.

1 comment:

Crystal Pariseau said...

Wonderful opportunity for both sides to learn and grow indeed! Way to go, family, and way to go, MN staff!