Japan renews support for special children

Islamabad: Japan has renewed its commitment to developing Pakistani children with disabilities and said it would continue support and cooperation to the Pakistani government and organisations for the purpose.

According to the Japanese embassy, NGO Association for Aid and Relief Japan has been executing a three-year project, Developing educational support system for children with disabilities' in two primary schools in Haripur district since November 2019 to promote educational opportunities of children with disabilities in the general education system by providing teacher’s training, building an accessible environment and creating disability awareness.

The project has identified around 150 children with disabilities in two communities of targeted schools. 21 children with disabilities have enrolled and are now attending school in these schools.

Among the 21 newly enrolled children with disabilities, three of them are children with total blindness.

The AAR started braille lectures for them this November with self-financing funded by donations from the People of Japan. As a first step of the class, a teacher with total blindness is teaching braille alphabets and numbers to the children. The braille class is arranged every day for a duration of two hours.