In 2019, before the COVID19- Pandemic, Yasmine was enrolled with AVSI "Back to Fhe future" project in the Social Relief and Welfare Association – Al Moasat center. She used to attend Early Childhood Education classes with the support of Seenaryo Organization and receive speech and occupational therapy sessions at Al Moasat center. However, with the pandemic, we shifted to remote learning.
Yasmine, who is now 5 years old, was born with Down Syndrome. Yasmine loves to dance to the beat of songs, to color and to smile!
In early 2020, when everything changed because of the pandemic and we shifted to remote learning, Yasmine started to receive the learning content through WhatsApp. For the first time, her parents started to get involved in teaching her academic skills, which was a bit challenging for them. After that, Yasmine was ill and had to be hospitalized. Therefore, she wasn’t able to participate in the remote learning for few weeks.
When Yasmine recovered, a thorough follow-up was done with her caregivers, her mother in particular, because she’s the one involved in implementing the activities, in order to guide her through the process of teaching her daughter.
Since then, and with the added value of the speech and language therapy sessions provided by our partner Al Moasat, Yasmine has shown remarkable improvement through remote learning. Not only from a skills perspective, but also from a motivation perspective. That’s why Yasmine is not only a fighter, but also a child who aims high!
As per her mother, she recently expressed how glad she is to see “Yasmine showing excitement when she receives a new video from her educator”. She keeps consulting both the educator and the Inclusion officer to get guidance on how to implement an activity with her child. Now that she knows that Yasmine is aiming high, she has become actively engaged and when she receives the new materials, she would say “I am thinking of trying this, what do you think?”
Yasmine like many other children identified with disabilities, her caregiver is receiving one to one remote support from AVSI Inclusion officer who is available to provide consultations and instructional adaptations to both the caregivers and the students’ educators.
Back to the Future is funded by the European Union in Lebanon , through the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, the EU Madad Fund, and implemented in partnership by AVSI Middle East , Terre des hommes Italy in Lebanon and War Child Holland.