Cairo: Jasour – News Desk
The National Council for Special Needs organized the sixth workshop of the second phase of the national initiative “My Family, My Strength” over two days at the Ministry of Health’s rest house in Assiut Governorate. This comes as part of the national project for the development of the Egyptian family, launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in 2022.
The workshop was attended by officials from the Child Support Program for Special Needs at the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood in Assiut, social and psychological specialists from inclusion schools in the governorate, directors of the solidarity, health, education, youth and sports, and culture directorates, as well as several council officials from the women’s, children’s, monitoring and follow-up, and public relations departments. Additionally, 70 families of individuals with special needs participated.
The workshop aimed to qualify and guide families of individuals with special needs, raising their awareness of their children’s rights and intervention methods, support, and assistance to improve their quality of life. The goal is to empower their children educationally, medically, and socially to support the development of the Egyptian family nationwide.
It also aims to enhance the awareness of government institutions, ministries, governorates, and civil society to support families of individuals with special needs, providing legal support to ensure a dignified life for them, and to highlight the success stories of these families who have excelled in raising their children and enabled them to achieve distinction in various fields. The workshop also addresses the challenges they face, finding a balance between multiple responsibilities, and highlighting the role of friends and supporters who encourage and support their special needs peers, responding to their inquiries and requests.
Dr. Eman Karim, General Supervisor of the National Council for Special Needs, explained that the organization of this workshop in Assiut targeted one of the most in-need governorates in Upper Egypt. The workshop was coordinated with the Ministry of Local Development to guide the targeted governorate in cooperation with the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and the directorates of health and education to support families and enhance the awareness of government institutions to improve service quality.
In a press statement issued by the council, Karim pointed out that the workshop included two meetings with families’ children in inclusion schools to address the challenges their children face, difficulties within schools with teachers and non-special needs students, and discussed all the problems they face in implementing the Special Needs Rights Law No. (10), such as issuing integrated service cards, integrating their children into schools, obtaining health insurance cards, or Karama pensions, and other issues discussed to find solutions. She noted that the workshop targeted individuals with intellectual disabilities, autism, visual, hearing, and physical impairments.
