“Safe Childhood”, a shelter for children with amputees and with special needs in Raqqa
Raqqa – North-Press Agency
Mustafa al-Khalil
The Safe Childhood Center of the Future Makers Team (an independent civil society organization) is the only center in the city of Raqqa and its countryside to educate children with special needs who have physical, auditory, and visual disabilities, through psychological support programs, various activities, and self-learning programs. The number of children in the center reaches about 100 children with special needs, under supervision and training by the educational and administrative staff of the center.
Coordination with Raqqa Civil Council
The Director of the Safe Childhood Center Ahmed al-Mousa told North-Press that the Center which was opened in 2018, is not a substitute for the schools, “its programs are aimed at children with special needs, as there is coordination between us and the Office of Persons with Disabilities in Raqqa Council, where they facilitate children's affairs, especially with regard to the knowledge of cases,” he said.
Al-Mousa pointed out that the training and educational staff in the Safe Childhood Center are composed of an administrative and educational body specialized in teaching Braille and sign language of trainers and coaches for psychological support, monitoring and evaluation. He hoped that the donors would provide support so that the center could be expanded to accommodate the largest number of children with disabilities in Raqqa, whose number exceeded 1,600 children, from the age of one day to 18 years, according to the field statistics made by the center's team.
The second war an obsession with constant fear for children
The psychological and social support instructor at the Safe Childhood Center, Ammar Abdel Wahab al-Ali, said that the systematic and non-systematic psychological support programs that students receive, such as sports, theatre, singing and dancing lessons aim to get them out of war situation, he added: "We have 70% of the ability of the children to recover on their own, while the rest they need psychological support.”
Regarding the concerns of the children of Raqqa, al-Ali said: "The majority of the concerns of Raqqa children today revolve around the occurrence of a second war and of the displacement again, in addition to the fact that children in their nature are listening to what the others say about the high prices and the high costs of living, all of these cases constitute their concerns.”
Recognizable improvement
The self-learning coach and teacher at the Safe Childhood Center, Abdel-Hamid al-Matar indicated that there is a clear development with regard to the educational level of children and their acceptance of their studies where the majority of them read well and are fully fluent in calculation processes.
Regarding the types of mobility impairments in the center, al-Matar said: "There are children who have mobility impairment and the reasons are due to the heavy bombardment or as a result of the land mines.” He added: “These children who lost their limbs are between 8 and 12 years old.”