NEW YORK, 04 October 2012

Richard Rieser is the managing director of World of Inclusion, an expert disabled international equality trainer, consultant and teacher. Recently, Mr. Rieser is supporting UNICEF as one of the minds behind Rights Education and Protection project (REAP). We spoke with Richard about inclusive education and the role of teachers in providing quality education for children with disabilities.

©UNICEF/ New York /2012/Rudina Vojvoda
Richard Rieser speaking at the side event to the Fifth Session of the Conference State Parties Working Together to Implement Inclusive Education (Article 24)

By Suzanne Beukes

Harare, Zimbabwe, 11 July 2012 – Using a machine resembling a typewriter, 15-year-old Kubulani Mbusa creates an embossed pattern on a white page. “This is my name,” he said proudly.

During his entire school career, Kumbulani has not had a textbook to follow in class and has to rely solely on his Perkins Brailler machine to complete his schoolwork.

© UNICEF/UGDA2012-00127/Michele Sibiloni
Denis Komakech, 17, who is a blind student, is using his laptop at Gulu High School, northern Uganda, an inclusive school with a special needs annex for children who are blind.

By Rudina Vojvoda

NEW YORK, USA, 16 June 2012 –The Day of the African Child commemorates the day in 1976 when hundreds of black schoolchildren were killed in Soweto, South Africa, as they took to the streets to protest against an inferior education system and the right to be taught in their own language.

The Education Transition Fund (ETF) came about in 2009 to address the dire needs of the country’s education system, which has suffered teacher shortages, a pupil-to-textbook ratio of 10-to-1, and high drop-out rates.

In a short space of time, the ETF has helped to stabilise the country’s education system. Now partners are implementing a long term plan focusing on broader investments in schools to ensure a quality education for all children, especially the most vulnerable. Peter Salama, UNICEF Zimbabwe Representative explains, “Due to the success of phase one of ETF all of our partners, the ministry of education, donors, UN and civil society partners have said we can’t stop there and move further than that now and into phase two looking at a more sophisticated and complex intervention in ETF.” But this will not be easy. Jorge Pereiro Pinon First Secretary, Head of Health and Social Sector of the EU in Zimbabwe says, “It will be more challenging. Everything that is more structural is more challenging, but it’s on a very good basis so we are sure it will work as good as the first phase.”

In Zimbabwe, the Education Transition Fund is rewriting Zimbabwe’s education system from UNICEF: Back on Track on Vimeo.

See related story

By Rudina Vojvoda

NEW YORK, 21 February 2012 – In November 2011 Michaela (Chaeli) Mycroft was awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize for her work and commitment to the rights of disabled children in South Africa.

In 2004, nine-years old Chaeli together with and her sister and friends started what is known as the Chaeli Campaign, an organization that provides equipment, physical therapy and programs to children with disabilities.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1096/Kate Holt
A girl with a speech problem receives speech therapy at the Voinicel Centre in Chisinau, the capital Moldova, Republic of, 2011

NEWS NOTE

MOSCOW, 27 September 2011 – Some 1.1 million children with disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are hidden away at home or in institutions. They are likely to be out of school and among those most vulnerable to neglect, abuse and exploitation, UNICEF said at a major conference which opened today.