World Vision creates new opportunities for children with learning disabilities
Sally is a 9-year-old girl from Nablus. She is in the fourth grade and is a registered child in World Vision’s sponsorship programme. Her teachers classified her as a weak student with learning disabilities.
To help students like Sally, World Vision established remedial education programmes on the weekends. According to Sally and her parents, these classes changed her life. Today, both she and her parents are excited to accompany their daughter in her new journey as they have witnessed significant gains in her academic performance.
The weekend remedial education programme lasted for four months and aimed at improving the academic abilities of weak learners in reading comprehension and mathematics, as both skills are considered foundational components of quality education.
“After being lost, I am now confident and can keep up with my schoolmates. I can even outperform them and get higher marks," says Sally.
In addition to remedial education for students, World Vision in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza also invested in teachers, providing them training in order to enhance the learning conditions for children. These efforts have demonstrated remarkable outcomes among students, including Sally.
Today, Sally has improved her reading and writing skills in Arabic language, which in turn has strengthened her self-esteem, pride and confidence among her peers.
“Now, I can read and write in Arabic, unlike the old days,” said Sally. “After being lost, I am now confident and can keep up with my schoolmates. I can even outperform them and get higher marks.”
Sally started to cry when she remembered herself before participating in the programme. “I used to get low marks in dictation, but now I get 10 out of 10. This programme has literally changed my life,” she said.
“[She now says] she wants to become a doctor when she grows up,” says her father.
“Sally has shown enthusiasm in all games performed in the programme,” said her teacher. “She has never skipped a Saturday and was always on time and stays until the end of the day… This is not the Sally we used to know before. She is a brand new girl who is always happy and optimistic.”
“Thanks to the programme that transformed Sally’s negative feelings of sadness, anger, shame and dependence to positive energy,” says her father. “[She now says] she wants to become a doctor when she grows up.”