Outreach Activities for Persons with Disabilities Continue via Social Media

(Al-Bireh – 29/4/2020) PRCS Rehabilitation and Ability Development Centers continued activities targeting persons with disabilities and their families as the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown continue in the oPt.

187 staff work at the Society’s Rehabilitation and Ability Development Department. They run programs with the participation of around 660 disabled children and youths, most of them enrolled at PRCS schools and rehabilitation centers in Al-Bireh, Nablus, Hebron, Toubas, Jericho, Anabta as well as in the Gaza Strip. WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages were created to ensure that these activities continue despite the lockdown, offering PRCS staff the opportunity to stay in touch with disabled persons, especially those with hearing impairments and intellectual disabilities, and to offer classes and provide educational materials online.

According to Suheir Badarneh, Head of PRCS Rehabilitation Program, the Society wants to ensure that its education programs for the hearing-impaired continue during the lockdown. For this reason, educational materials were photographed and classes recorded and sent to students who then gave their feedback. Activities were also shared with parents of children with intellectual disabilities with a view to improving their skills in terms of self-care, motor and cognitive abilities.

Parents were asked to carry out these activities with their children and to send their feedback to teachers and rehabilitation staff.

PRCS also harnessed social media platforms to raise awareness about Covid-19 by using them to disseminate educational materials published by PRCS, and to determine and respond to the needs of persons with disabilities. This enabled PRCS for example to provide hearing-aid and cochlear implant batteries to more than 300 persons, with more than 500 battery cards distributed. Unfortunately, not all children could benefit from these online activities as children without home internet services could only be reached via telephone.

In the Gaza Strip, the Open Studio team increased activities via its Facebook page and WhatsApp groups. Numerous activities (sports, handicrafts, dabkeh dances, music and plastic arts) were created and posted to keep children busy during lockdown. 250 children directly benefited from these activities which were also viewed by 2700 other page and group followers.

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