Shali is a child with cerebral palsy

Shali’s father took her to a rehabilitation centre for some months to get therapy

Shali continued to exercise with her father at home

CBR project began in this county and:

Community rehab co-ordinator (a PwD) discovered Shali’s situation and arranged for local teacher to visit her at home (informal education);

2015: Shali started at the local primary school: she faces lots of challenges but the CBR project is helping

Shali’s father uses social media (wechat) to talk with other parents in nearby villages to advise them

[Pinglu County, Shanxi; reported by Mr. Fu Keli, July 2015]

Informal education: in China there is an education department programme just starting: called “送教上?”

It’s to help children get an education who cannot go to school because of severe disabilities or medical problems / transport problems. It is really good.

But the teachers are not specially trained so don’t know how to teach a child who cannot talk/ has athetosis so cannot sit, . Another problem is that it keeps the child at home, when a child’s normal environment is other children . This real example above, who I have also met so know it is true (photo is mine), is good, because they just used the informal education to start with then found a way to get her into the primary school.

See photo on next slide: you may want to put it on this slide

It’s also a nice example because it shows importance of CBR

1) to persuade the father that the girl needs more than exercise: she has the right of education

2) Community rehab co-ordinator links up home with education department

3) Comm rehab co-ordinator follows up the girl and supports her

4) CBR uses her father as a mentor for other parents and children through social media