Forgotten by the State, disabled children in online teaching during pandemic

Pandemia COVID-19 has come as a strong storm that has affected and damaged every sector and category in the world, the region and Kosovo. This evil has not escaped even individuals with special skills who, respectively, according to the HANDICOS Information Official, the Misin Horses have been strongly challenged during this pandemic period.

In an interview with Online Economy, Missini has stated that children with special skills have faced problems in pursuing online learning and adapting to technological platforms often by not participating in the process.

Unfortunately disabled children are in line with one of the most marginalized groups in society who face many difficulties, whether in the face of involvement or in approach that is offered in the community. When we are at the pandemic because it was a very difficult time for all people, it was especially for disabled people, and especially for disabled children”, she says.

The challenge for these children is the lack of technology tools to follow the learning online.

“Their challenges have been big enough, and their difficulties have been great during this period, since they have also received direct services from HANDIOS, where we are the main providers of primary rehabilitation services for disabled children. On the other hand, there has been another challenge for them to pursue distance or online learning because a large portion of them have also had a lack of technological equipment while they have also had inadequateness or have not been able to adapt to platforms that have been used for online instruction by educational institutions, and in this case they have actually not fully felt equal to other children, since often they are not even involved in online teaching”, she said.

Despite all the problems that have been presented for this category, Missini has said that institutional support has been lacking.

There was unfortunately no institutional interest in this category. We can even say that families of disabled persons have been among the most economically affected because they have not had any extra support from institutions, and of course this has directly affected children” has stressed Missini.

She also told about Online Economy that only thanks to donor assistance, HANDICOS has been able to help families of children with special skills.

Over the course of this period with the support of our permanent donors, we have managed to support economically where in three or four stages we have distributed food and hygienic package. And when we are in the children's home to a little bit of long-term education, we've been able to do the delivery of some technological equipment in this case with the support of Save the Children. We also made the distribution of masks where over 400 masks have been distributed to four Kosovo municipalities as well with support from Save the Children.

And when we talk about the negative influences that the pandemic is leaving on people, it's like not to mention the psychic impact children have had with special skills, in which Missin shows that virtual sessions have been offered by HANDICOS.

Of course, psychologically affecting all these factors that I mentioned earlier in this case, the lack of literal teaching in distance has greatly influenced children in a psychological sense, since they have felt uneven with other children. We know that even in the normal condition of disabled children, they are vulnerable to the educational system because they are not offered basic access such as infrastructure, so most schools have no infrastructure access. But we as HANDICOS have constantly tried to stimulate them to stay active, even through some of the guiding videos that we've cracked for them on a daily basis almost through personal interest in them. As of March, under the “Advancing the capacity for children's rights” project, we have managed to hold virtual or online sessions where the beneficiaries have been 15 children of the Pristina region”, it has indicated.

Missin has also suggested that HANDIOS does not have enough budgets to cover projects that are organised in the best interests of this category.

There is no financial stability or that is directly financed by the state but that this financial situation is directly dependent on donors or our external supporters. So the masks and tablets that are offered mainly are within the activities that we develop into projects that we also implement”, she added.

Finally, Missin indicated that only 5 people have been affected by HANDICOS.

The total “as long as we have information so far has been affected by 4 or 5 people but not identified as children since we know that even from O The U.S. shows that children are less endangered by COVIID-19 or that they may also be asmptomatic so that the cases for children we don't identify” are over.