Schools plea for special children (originally published in Gulf Daily News)

BAHRAIN'S Down Syndrome children are missing out on the benefits of mainstream education due to failing integration schemes in government schools, claims a top expert.

Efforts to have more children with the disorder join government classrooms have not been effective due to the lack of planning, said Bahrain Down Syndrome Care Centre director Dr Mohammed Al Mannai.

"The idea and actions to integrate students with the disorder started almost nine to 10 years ago," he said.

"But to this day there is no real outcome to be mentioned. The only benefit has been basically children wearing their school uniforms and marked being present at school.

"But besides that there is no integration, no awareness, no lectures about the disorder and some even keep guards at the classroom door believing that students may end up wandering around."

The integration of children with Down syndrome into mainstream classrooms has benefits for both sets of students, said Dr Al Mannai.

Mainstream children will grow up knowing that there is a difference between people in the world and will be aware that some people have special needs, he said.

"Studies have shown that people who advocate human rights have themselves been to schools with integration schemes and understand the need to protect the rights of all," said Dr Al Mannai.

"Meanwhile, the integration of students with the disorder will help them overcome fear or anxiety of mixing with other people in the community.

"Integration also motivates the students to learn from and copy their mainstream peers in aspects such as speech and dialogue."

If the integration process was taken seriously there would have been a detailed plan and if one existed it is a secret no one knows about, said Dr Al Mannai.

A focus on the development of people with special needs started gaining momentum around 30 years ago, he added.

The first thought of solution was creating special schools or centres to cater to their needs.

However, around 20 years into that, it was discovered that there was no beneficial outcome, said Dr Al Mannai.

Ever since, the worldwide trend has been to try the integration model in mainstream education which has had successful results, he said.

"After the Bahrain Down Syndrome Society started calling out for the integration of children with the disorder, the Education Ministry agreed," said Dr Al Mannai.

"However, now the ministry states that the decision was made suddenly without proper planning and they blame the parents and students.

"There are only three to four positions in the ministry to deal with the integration scheme and they definitely need more specialists than that.

"They are making things very complicated and we just want to know if they are going to improve the situation or not.

"Until when will we have to keep speaking out and persuading?"

Dr Al Mannai said that having the current scheme the way it is, was a "better than nothing" situation for the parents.

"However, certain steps need to be taken to fulfil our goal of integrating Down Syndrome youngsters into schools and the society," he said.

There is need for the re-evaluation of the current models, said Dr Al Mannai.

The ministry and the society representing the children need to sit together and think of ways to improve and enhance the model, he added.

"A clear budget for the integration process should also be announced and more specialists should be appointed to work on the issue first hand and implement it effectively in schools.

"Finally, a clear national plan with specific goals needs to be set up so that there are tangible solutions to the problem."

Another problem parents are facing is the lack of kindergartens and nurseries that accept children with the disorder, said Dr Al Mannai.

Some nurseries do accept their enrolment, but charge almost double the amount a mainstream student would pay, he added.

"The ministry says it does not have any authority over the nurseries," said Dr Al Mannai.

"The truth is anyone with an amount of money can open a nursery.

"But what the ministry should do is to refuse the registration of any nursery that cannot accommodate all types of students."

Educational facilities should accept everyone and not discriminate, he said.

If they need to pay more to hire specialised staff it was not the responsibility of the parent to pay the difference, added Dr Al Mannai.

"The Bahrain Down Syndrome Society was the first of its kind in the Arab world and we were the first to have an Arabic language website and create a centre for the needs of the Down Syndrome community," he said.

"But now, unfortunately, all the other countries have exceeded us in their integration model and we need to get back on track."

Land of 5 million trees (originally published in Gulf Daily News)

BAHRAINI Redha Al Mandeel refuses to give up on his dream of seeing five million trees planted across the country - despite little progress three years after launching the campaign.

The 70-year-old Saar Group of Companies managing director first shared his hopes of a greener environment for his homeland during an interview with the GDN in 2007.

However, three years down the line he finds his dying wish remains as distant as ever.

Mr Al Mandeel has spent the last few years single-handedly supervising an increase in greenery in his Karzakan neighbourhood.

The semi-retired environmentalist has spent up to BD400 out of his own pocket to have hundreds of trees planted along both sides of a 1km road in the area.

In total, he has already planted more than 1,000 trees in Ma'ameer factories and near Alba in the last 20 years, including around 300 since 2007.

But Mr Al Mandeel's pride and glory remains his 2.5-acre Karzakan farm, which houses cows, goats, ducks, peacocks, parrots and turkeys.

It is full of green plants and tree nurseries, a sight that has attracted many birds and visitors for across Bahrain.

"The greenery I introduced has attracted people from the villages to come for a walk under the shade and beauty of the trees," said Mr Al Mandeel.

"They also come with their horses for a ride.

"They take advantage of the fact that the crab apple and almond trees are fruiting, so they stroll and pick them from the trees.

"I try to grow as much fruit and shade trees in the area as possible.

"It is a very nice feeling when people come to visit and enjoy nature, this area is now popular."

However, although the number of visitors to his farm has increased, Mr Al Mandeel says his green message does not seem to be reaching the authorities.

"The government has done a tremendous thing by recycling drainage water that goes into Tubli," he said.

"For the past few years the water has been cleaned and redistributed to farms for usage.

"However for Bahrain to successfully become greener we need a dedicated department and dedicated officials to govern the issue.

"We should start planting trees on a massive scale on every road.

"It should be a project through the auspices of the local municipality and later spread to schoolchildren to involve them in the greening.

"We can create nurseries in local farms so that people can start planting trees in roads.

"We can also use the shallow areas of the sea water to create ponds for fish and shrimp like they have successfully done in India and Sri Lanka.

"We could have a completely integrated environmental system if it is initiated by the government."

Mr Al Mandeel said the need to introduce such projects was urgent, not just to help beautify Bahrain but to improve public health.

"Time is running out. Climate change has started and it's happening very fast," he said. "We need to reverse the trend."

Message

"Greening areas also improves the temperature, creates more oxygen for citizens and thus people will end up with improved health.

"It is the only hope for the future generation - we cannot do it until we start soon.

"I really hope someone hears my message," he said.