Zambia-based educator Mikala Mukongolwa is helping train teachers in her country to better support children with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (IDD) and to build inclusive communities in the southern African country.
Mukongolwa reports that things are improving for people with IDD in Zambia and credits her partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration (ICI) and its DirectCourse online curriculum, developed by ICI’s Research Center on Community Living. She calls the online resources “invaluable” and has worked with ICI staff to improve training for Zambia’s direct support professionals, local providers, faith-based organizations, teachers, and families.
“A lot of teachers in my country ask me, ‘Where do you learn all this?’” Mukongolwa said. “We were the first [in Zambia] to come up with a child protection policy and to help parents better understand behaviors in their children with disabilities. All that knowledge came from DirectCourse. Without ICI, I would still be in the dark.”
The director of ICI and founding director of DirectCourse, Amy Hewitt, has worked with Mukongolwa and her colleagues for a long time and said, “Being able to offer DirectCourse curriculum, provide support to professionals, and connect Mikala to other resources at the University of Minnesota is consistent with ICI’s mission. It fulfills our commitment to global inclusion and has literally saved lives.”
Mukongolwa reports that inclusive education for children with disabilities has never fully worked in Zambia due to a number of challenges. She says one of the main issues is the absence of genuinely inclusive communities in which people with disabilities can live without being segregated. Mukongolwa says the partnership with ICI works within communities to change the way people view disability, by providing education to children with disabilities, their parents, caregivers, and the wider community.
“This training program has helped change people’s behaviors, attitudes, and old beliefs that falsely linked disability to witchcraft,” Mukongolwa said. “DirectCourse has increased teachers’ and parents’ knowledge and understanding of practices and approaches in the U.S. context and how we can apply those strategies in Zambia.”
Hewitt is hopeful the partnership between the University of Minnesota and the people of Zambia will continue to bring benefits. “The needs in Zambia to ensure education, healthcare, nutrition, employment, safety, and everything else that makes a good life for people with disabilities are enormous,” Hewitt said. “But, seeing the difference this small ongoing project has, and will continue to make, by teaching and training educators, families, and community volunteers, is remarkable. It is one of the small ways in which our work makes a difference.”
View original article: https://ici.umn.edu/news/ici-s-partnership-to-support-children-with-idd-in-africa
