Educational activities for disabled students in Semarang

The School for Disabled SLB Semarang was founded in 2005 to cater to the needs of disabled children and youth found in Semarang and the surrounding areas. The school is mainly funded by the Central Java department of health, and it cooperates closely with Diponegoro University's statutory health services and medicine faculty. The foreign volunteers' presence and interaction will be of great benefit to the children, who have little or no other chance to meet and live with people from other cultures. The educational classes, vocational training, and other therapeutic activities executed by the volunteers will provide these kids with direction. The intercultural dimension generated by foreign volunteers is welcomed and valued by the local staff, especially the English teachers, who will gain invaluable support in their teaching practices.

The role of the volunteers will be to assist local teachers in classes by teaching basic conversational English and helping out in the physical activity training of the disabled students. This could involve handicraft-making, playing games, or performing simple sports, among others. Through the influence that this help will identifiably have on the students, it can be expected that the volunteers themselves will gain a deeper knowledge of the completely different reality of the disabled kids and will develop an overall sense of the local culture. This project strives to open the minds of the international volunteers, by bringing focus to the attention that the disabled Indonesian students require in order to face their future with strength. Additionally, the project will educate the volunteers about the treatment that families of these disabled children should provide, and may even improve a volunteer's own perception of themselves and what they can achieve.

The project will take place in the following time periods:

* October 10 - October 24, 2009
* May 8 - May 21, 2010

During free time, the volunteers will have the chance to visit Semarang city, Samp Poo Kong Chinese Temple, Lawang Sewu Building and Gedong Songo Hindus Temples.

SLB Semarang is located in the Tembalang area, in the south part of Semarang City. The school has 60 staff workers, including medical personnel, physiotherapists, psychologists, and former students who work as assistant staff. The school provides care, support and education to about 230 students, most of who classify as one of: mentally challenged, autistic, deaf and mute, down syndrome, or blind. The majority are between 5 and 15 years of age. Educational classes start as early as kindergarten and continue up to senior high-school. The school also provides vocational training in motor maintenance, sewing, carpentry, cooking, computer courses, electronics, music, hair dressing, and sports among others. On-site Master degree students also internship there - providing Genetic Counselling, organizing several regular activities with the school, and giving consultations about the children's' mental and physical disabilities to their families. They also perform research on the attitude and behaviour of the kids, in order to find a proper method of treatment. Besides the staff, there are about 20 regular volunteers, who provide assistance to the students and teaching staff. School hours are between 7:30am to 12:30pm from Monday through Saturday, although about 50 students stay in the school until 3:30 pm daily.

There is an extra fee of 160 Euros for participation in this project, intended to support the local host.