Presented at ISEC 2000

CBM International's Efforts at "Including the Excluded"

William G Brohier

Abstract

Since the foundation of the Christoffel-Blindenmission/Christian Blind Mission International in Malatia, Turkey in 1908 by Pastor Ernst Christoffel, the Mission has been working at "Including the Excluded" in the developing countries. The focus has always been on those who are blind as well as persons with other disabilities.

Although CBM International started as a one-man one-project organisation, today it is working in partnership with over 1,000 projects in more than 100 countries which are actively involved not only in the education and rehabilitation of visually impaired persons and those with other impairments but also in the prevention of the causes of blindness and other disabilities.

Throughout its history CBM International has striven to keep up with current trends and innovative service delivery models which reach out to the unreached. Thus, in this context, this paper draws on the rich experience of some of its partner-projects in the Asia-Pacific region (China, India, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines), in Africa (Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi, Togo and Zimbabwe) and Latin America (Chile). The progress made is documented. Strengths and weaknesses are discussed, while successes and barriers are reviewed to ensure greater "Positive Outcomes" in the future.

It ends with reference to developments taking place in, Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

It was the burden on his heart to include the excluded which motivated Pastor Ernst Christoffel to challenge God - "If the Lord provides money for the journey, money to rent a house and money to care for 10 blind persons for a year, then we shall go" to start a ministry in Malatia, Turkey. His supporters rose to the occasion. Thus, 1908 saw the birth of the Christian Blind Mission/Christoffel Blindenmission - CBM International as its worldwide mission is referred to today. The First World War brought an end to Pastor Christoffel's work in Turkey but his total dedication to reaching the unreached blind persons and others with disabilities led him to launch out again in faith after the war - this time in Tabriz, Persia(Iran) in 1925. When Pastor Christoffel died in 1955, the Mission had expanded to, literally, only a handful of projects.

Under the dynamic leadership of Pastor and Mrs S Wiesinger, CBM International experienced its most rapid period of expansion spanning three decades from the beginning of the Sixties. The Mission's work, both in terms of the number of projects and the scope of its services in reaching out to the poorest of the poor, as well as the prevention and cure of blindness and other disabling causes, increased to around 1,000 projects in some 100 countries of the developing world. Working in partnership with national and local Churches, Mission Societies, national, local and international NGOs, and governments, the organisation reached out and touched the lives of tens of thousands of visually impaired children and adults and also others with disabilities, thereby helping to make a difference to their quality of life.

Today, in the fourth phase of its 92-year history, CBM International continues to play an even greater leading role in including the excluded, headed by Pastor C Garms, who took over as Co-Executive Director with Mr H Förschler and Executive Director (Overseas Department) just over eleven years ago, following the death of Pastor Wiesinger early in 1989. Currently, at the dawn of this new Millennium, the one-man one-project Mission, which was started in faith and obedience to God in 1908 by Pastor Christoffel, is working … 2/- - 2 - in partnership with well over 1,000 projects in more than 100 developing countries around the world - assisted by over 100 seconded expert co-workers and thousands of national specialists. Moreover, CBM International has been and still is one of the prime movers and supporters of "Vision 2020: The Right to Sight", which is "A Global Initiative for the Elimination of Avoidable Blindness" by the year 2020, and which was launched by the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in February 1999.

The following extract of figures from the 1998 CBM Overseas Report speaks volumes for itself:

a) Disabled People who received social-educational care included: · 71,940 blind and LV, including 700 deaf-blind (9,890 school children) · 26,750 Deaf (9,020 school children) · 42,880 physically disabled (1,520 school children) · 17,970 mentally handicapped (1,940 school children) · 11,120 multiply disabled (860 school children) · 2,120 speech impaired in CBR totalling 172,780 who were reached and included in some way or other.

b) 9,966,200 Sick People received medical treatment: · 9,076,000 eye patients (313,300 operated Cataract patients; 136,000 other surgeries for those whose sight was endangered, and 453,400 received spectacles) · 6,000 leprosy patients · 21,900 TB patients · 52,600 orthopaedic patients/receivers of artificial limbs · 10,800 polio patients · 58,200 ENT patients · 740,700 other patients

c) The above was achieved in 109 countries through 1,095 partner-projects, which were supported by 9,652 local specialists who were assisted by 131 assigned co-workers.

Throughout its expansion into a major world development agency (INGDO - International Non-Governmental Development Organisation), CBM International has always had one main aim: to serve as many people as possible, within its mandate, who are socially disadvantaged and marginalised - the neediest among the needy. In order to achieve this, the organisation has striven not only to keep up with current trends but also to pioneer innovative service delivery models. From the end of the Seventies, integrated education was promoted, first as a pilot project in the State of Tamilnadu, India. Since then, visually impaired children have been integrated using a variety of models in consultation with the respective partners and taking into account the local situation. In addition, a number of professional books have been published and, as one further example, an Educational Kit of essential items of equipment and materials to facilitate learning at elementary and secondary school levels, such as a Braille slate and stylus, Braille paper, an abacus, a ruler, set squares, etc., was put together and is freely supplied to blind children and youths in schools and community based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes through partner-projects in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The CBR approach to effective and appropriate service delivery, especially for disabled persons in the rural areas, is another strategy which has had the growing support of CBM International over the last 20 odd years.

Along with the above development came the rapid recognition of the special needs of children and adults with low vision, especially those who were in special residential schools and who were being forced to use Braille as the medium of reading and writing, although they did so using their sight! In more recent years, CBM International has pioneered and/or supported work in the production of, for example:

All of the above efforts should be seen in the context of developing countries, in many of which the conditions are beyond the imagination of many in the developed countries - over-crowded classrooms of up to 100 non-disabled students, an absence of even textbooks in print, and the number of disabled students in schools per country ranging from 20%, at best, to only 1%.

At the landmark World Conference on "Special Needs Education: Access and Quality" held in June 1994, the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, which strongly advocates the inclusion of children with disabilities into the regular schools, was adopted by acclamation. CBM International, which was also represented at the Conference, has been promoting this alternative strategy for the inclusion of more disabled children into regular "schools for all" in furtherance of its own mandate and in support of the 1990 Jomtien World Declaration on Education for All (EFA).

For the preparation of this paper a Questionnaire was sent through the CBM Regional Representatives to a number of specific projects which had been recommended by the Regional Representatives themselves. Those projects which kindly responded in time are very gratefully acknowledged and listed in Appendix 1. The full support of the Regional Representatives, and their Co-workers concerned, is also acknowledged with much appreciation.

Pacific (1) and Latin America (1) submitted statistics and outlined their strengths and weaknesses. It was hoped that the data collected could be analysed for direct comparisons between the years 1995 and 1999. However, for a variety of reasons, only some figures and general totals can be used; but they do reveal interesting facts from which conclusions can be drawn, also based on the helpful introspective comments offered by the projects. Therefore, what follows refer only to the approximate statistics and information supplied in the Questionnaire by CBM's partner-projects and relate solely to the projects themselves.

1. The two residential schools in Ethiopia (CBM's Africa Region - East.II), with some 160 blind and low vision students in the pre-school class up to Grade VIII, have just started reverse integration at the KG level. Each year the non-disabled children will move up one grade.
2. In Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo (the CBM Africa Region - West), the total number of children with disabilities in integrated education programmes at primary and secondary levels increased from a maximum between 1995 and 1998 of 487 students to 789 in 1999, the majority of whom were children with hearing impairment.
3. Of the above, Burkina Faso had the largest number, 384 students in the three projects - 363 of whom were hearing impaired. Only 21 visually impaired students were in integrated programmes as compared with 50 in the special school.
4. Also in 1999, Nigeria had 30 hearing impaired children in integrated education (nil in 1995) compared to 15 in a residential school. The primary school for blind children had 12 students plus 9 others who had been integrated, whereas there were none in 1995.
5. Togo reports a small but significant increase in the number of hearing impaired children in one project who were attending regular pre-school classes alongside their non-disabled peers: from 6 to 15 children. In another project, 14 visually impaired children were in integrated education classes last year compared to none in 1995.
6. For Zimbabwe (CBM's Africa Region - South), the reported increase in the number of visually impaired students between 1997 and 1999 is only 8 - from 54 to 62.
7. As we move east, we find some striking differences in the figures, not only because of the higher populations. In the CBM South Asia Region - North, the partner working in Gujarat State, India, records the following integrated and/or inclusive education statistics of blind and low vision students:

8. In the State of Tamilnadu (CBM SARO - South), where CBM started its pilot project of integrated education in India in 1980, even higher totals are reflected among the twelve projects:

9. China (CBM's Central East Asia Region) has also made some impressive progress in two Provinces over the last five years. From 1996-1999 a three-year programme was started in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with the Guangxi Education Commission and with the approval of the State Education Commission. By 1998, the number of blind and low vision children admitted to regular primary and middle schools had shot up to 2153, representing an enrolment rate of 81.8%. Last year a similar programme was started in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. There were only 17 visually impaired children in a special school, whereas since the programme started, 252 more have been included in the regular schools.

10. Within CBM's South East Asia Pacific Region, the efforts in Papua New Guinea show promising results. Inclusive education is being practised as a national policy and although one project has reported only 3 visually impaired, 18 hearing impaired and 7 mobility impaired students admitted to regular pre-schools and primary schools, a further 367 children with "other learning difficulties" have also been enrolled in 10 "schools for all" with a total of over 5,800 non-disabled students. The other project, which was a residential school for blind children, has become a community school for all children in the neighbourhood, including those who are hearing impaired and 2 or 3 who are deaf-blind. It also provides accommodation for and assists the 20 visually impaired students who have been integrated and supports other programmes for blind and low vision children in various parts of the country.

11. The Philippines too, which also falls within the same region, has made very good progress in terms of integrating and/or including children with disabilities, especially those with visual or hearing impairments: in one project, between 1995 and 1999, the number of blind and low vision students in regular primary schools increased from 525 to 1042, 324 of whom were in inclusive schools, whereas there were none in 1995. Likewise, last year there were 3,398 hearing impaired students integrated as against 2,178 in 1995. In the hills of Northern Luzon, the other project has launched out from the city into the remote mountainous areas of the Province and started a CBR programme for 51 pre-school visually impaired students. In addition, 62 students are in "schools for all" at primary and secondary levels as against only 18 in 1995.

12. The project from CBM's Latin America Region is a small one with only 3 pre-schoolers, 9 in the primary and 5 at secondary level who have been integrated in a widely scattered and sparsely populated area of Chile.

From the above, the following picture emerges among the CBM-assisted projects in terms of including the excluded:

1. Progress is definitely being made - some projects have taken very small steps forward, while others are moving ahead much faster.
2. However, the numbers being reached are no more than around 10%, at the very best - EFA is still a very long way off, and will remain so, unless accelerated steps are taken by all concerned.
3. In Africa, where the need is perhaps the greatest, the numbers in special schools and those being integrated and/or included are very low when compared with the progress being made in Asia and the Pacific.
4. There is also much work to be done in Latin America and the Caribbean to promote inclusion and/or integration.

A summary of the strengths of the projects as well as their reasons for success can be listed as follows:

1. Strong political will, good government support, and appropriate non-discriminatory legislation.
2. The availability of suitably trained teachers and the existence of pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes in special needs education for regular school teachers.
3. Good management and effective administration.
4. Positive attitudes and acceptance of society and the parents of disabled persons.
5. Financial support from NGOs and INGDOs.
6. Existence of early identification and intervention programmes.
7. Commitment of and co-operation among teachers, administrators, parents and civil society.

The above is not new but it does emphasise their universal importance if EFA is to become a reality for children with disabilities which is their human right as well.

Some of the barriers mentioned and reasons for weaknesses in the programmes, in addition to an absence or lack of the above, are:

1. The absence of a National Plan for Education, which includes children with disabilities.
2. Inappropriate curricula.
3. Inadequate basic equipment and materials.
4. Classes too large and classroom conditions very poor.
5. Transport difficulties: · for disabled children to commute daily · for itinerant teachers and supervisors to do an effective job.

According to the returns, in Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria, where there is now a varying combination of the reasons for success listed as #1 to #7, there is much hope for some rapid developments and a significant increase in the number of disabled children who will be given an education.

The Dakar Framework for Action, adopted at the World Education Forum, April 26 - 28 this year, has extended the target year for EFA from 2000 to 2015. Governments have been called upon to fulfil their obligation "through broad-based partnerships within countries, supported by co-operation with regional and international agencies and institutions."

The "collective commitments" of all must be mobilised and CBM International will continue to make its contribution, within its mandate, towards the attainment of the six EFA goals:

i) expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;

ii) ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality;

iii) ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes; iv) achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults;

v) eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality;

vi) improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

APPENDIX 1

CBM International's Efforts at "Including the Excluded"

Respondents to Questionnaire

Index