(a) School for the Intellectually Disabled program:
SWID Bangladesh pioneered special education and inclusive education system in Bangladesh and still now it is the largest organization that provides special education and promotes the instances of inclusive education for the intellectually disabled through its specials schools.
(b) Awareness development and government involvement:
§ Developed awareness among the common people regarding the education and training of the intellectually disabled
§ Drew attention of the government for development activities of disabled people, as a result, the government has come forward to support educational program of the disabled by providing 100 percent salary support to the teachers/staff of special education program of SWID Bangladesh.
§ As a result of combined efforts of SWID Bangladesh and other organizations, government has developed National Disability Policy and Disabled Welfare Act 2001. Now, two laws has been enacted through changing the earlier law and the laws are ‘Disability Rights and Protection Law-2013’ and Neuro-developmental Disability Protection Trust Act-2013.
(c) Professional development:
§ Developed a group of professionals, teachers, and other staff to work for the welfare of the intellectually disabled. SWID has organized training programs to develop a group of professionals who become key professionals and trainers for the teaching staff. Both the professionals and teaching staff has been locally as well as from abroad. It has trained staff of other organizations to disseminate knowledge and skills in handling intellectually disabled persons.
(d) Cultural development of the persons with intellectual disabilities:
§ Organized a good number of cultural programs with the participation of intellectually disabled persons.
(e) Promotion of inclusive education:
SWID Bangladesh has pioneered inclusive education in Bangladesh since its inception by opening its first special education class in the mainstream school, namely Will’s Little Flower School and College. Other special education classes in the mainstream school of Mirpur Govt Primary School, Khilgaon Govt. Boy’s School, Colony Govt. Primary School, Sher-e-Banglanagar Boy’s School, Primary School of Jamalpur. It promotes mainstream education of intellectually disabled children. As a part of its initiative, it took the following programs which have some positive impact in promoting access for the disabled in the country:
(i) Govt. Primary School Teachers’ Training and Awareness Program: Title of the project:
"Capacity Development of the primary school teachers and social awareness creation for Inclusion of the intellectually disabled children in the mainstream government primary schools in several districts of Bangladesh". This program started in July 2004 and ended in July 2005. The project was funded by CIDA and approved by the Directorate of Primary and Mass Education. The objectives of the project were:
q Conducting 6-days training programs in 19 districts for 25 teachers in each batch to enhance skills in teaching the intellectually disabled and develop positive attitude in favor for educating intellectually disabled in the mainstream primary schools.
q Conducting one-day workshop in 19 venues at the end of the each training program with the participation of local elites, NGO workers, teachers and government officials especially from the department of social welfare and education.
The project was implemented in the following places:, Feni, Comilla, Kushtia, Barisal, Chittagong, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Faridpur, Bagerhat, Bhola, Khulna, Satkhira, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Madhupur, Sarishabari, Bogra, Gaibandha, and Brahmanbaria. 482 teachers of government primary schools were trained through this project. 1927 persons from local elites, NGO workers, teachers and government officials especially from the department of social services and education participated in the workshops. 'A Teachers Training Manual' has been developed for conducting the training program. The key components of the training programs and workshop were basic information relating to intellectual disability and inclusive education. One of the achieved results is involvement of Directorate of Primary Education in the program of disability. At the initial stage, the idea of inclusion of intellectually or other disabled in the mainstream primary schools was negative but at the end of the training program or workshop, they became motivated for educating the intellectually disabled in the mainstream primary schools. In the meantime, Directorate of Primary Education passed an order for admitting the disabled children in the Govt. primary schools. The teachers who have participated in the program have acquired basic skills and knowledge of handling and teaching the intellectually disabled persons. Another important result of the program is to analysis of possibility of inclusion of the disabled. It is revealed that there are some limitations in educating the disabled in the mainstream school but simultaneously it shows that there some possibilities for inclusion. In the present situation few disabled can be admitted and if the education system and attitude changed and facilities are created more disabled children will be admitted. Above all, the participants were sensitized for educational rights of the persons with disabilities.
(ii) Training program for the teachers of non-formal primary schools of BRAC (Project title: Integration and development of the unreached intellectually disabled.) The project was funded by Human Development Foundation and approved by BRAC. The objectives and locations of the Project:
q Identification of the intellectually disabled persons in the project area
q Promotion of admission and educating intellectually disabled in the non-formal primary schools run by BRAC
q Demonstrate inclusive education in the BRAC non-formal primary schools
q Motivate BRAC for inclusion of disabled children in their educational program
The results of the action: Number of teachers trained:
Ø In 2000/1 at Faridpur, Rajbari and Manikgonj region= 143 teachers were trained
Ø In 2001/2 at Faridpur, Rajbari and Manikgonj region= 297 teachers were trained
Ø In 2003/4 at Natore and Magura region= 203 teachers were trained
Ø As a result of teachers training and demonstration of integration of the disabled people in the non-formal schools of BRAC, the BRAC authority started disabled children education program in their schools with their own initiative, which is a part of our achievement.
(f) Promotion of services in the health sector:
SWID opened Child Guidance Clinics at Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Bangabandhu Medical University (then PG Hospital) in different time to provide services and guidance to the children with disabilities. as a result of these efforts now child development centers in the hospitals, and special unit (IPNA) at Bangabandhu Medical University for the children with autism are being established.
(g) Formation of other auxiliary organizations:
SWID Bangladesh has initiated for the establishment of other organizations for the benefit of the intellectually disabled persons of Bangladesh, those are:
(a) Special Olympics, Bangladesh- SWID Bangladesh communicated with International Special Olympics in 1990 and arranged a local independent body to form the 'Special Olympics, Bangladesh' in 1993 which is responsible for organizing Special Olympics games in Bangladesh and participation in the World Special Olympics by the intellectually disabled persons.
(b) Trust for the Welfare of the Intellectually Disabled (TWID)- TWID has been formed in 1994 for rehabilitation of the intellectually disabled persons and acting as guardian for the intellectually disabled persons who lost their legal guardians.
(c) SWID contributed in the formation of National Association for Sports of Persons with Disabilities (NASPD), National Para-Olympics Committee (NPC), ‘Prayash’ a school for the persons with intellectually disability, and convinced Govt. to establish National Sports Complex at Savar for persons with all types of disability.
(d) Convince and cooperate Govt. to establish National Centre for Special Education (NCSE) in 1993 by financial support from NFPU, NABP, NAD and NORAD of Norway.
(e) Requested the then Prime Minister in 1997 during the 13th Asian Conference on Mental Retadation and motivate Govt. to form JPUF (NFDD- National Foundation for the Development of the Disabled) in the year 2000.
(f) Convince authority of BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) in including the issue of disability in national population census and house-hold survey of 2001 and 2011.
(g) Motivate Govt. to conduct a survey for detection of disability by DSS (Department of Social Service).
(h) Convince Govt. to establish disability service centers in all districts.
(g) Networking with other organizations:
SWID Bangladesh maintains working relationship with same category organizations to achieve its goal. It is the full member of Inclusion International, and Asian Federation for the Intellectually Disabled (AFID).
