Disability or special educational needs is a hot topic nowadays, especially in my country of origin –  Macedonia. There we have the new inclusion law and all the children with special educational needs are now going to regular schools with an opportunity to visit the “special schools”. Those special schools are becoming resource centers where professionals (special educators and rehabilitators) can help each student to achieve their goals using special methods from special education.

I am a special educator with experience working in the NGO sector in Macedonia and in Turkey on projects connected to inclusion and disability as well as directly with children and youngsters with disability. I have to say that I have always been focused on raising awareness about the disability topic, conducting research, projects, organizing trainings, workshops and direct work with users with disability but mostly connected to education and through the use of assistive technology as well with the “regular methods”.

At the moment, I am a volunteer in Bologna in Casa Santa Chiara  – a foundation with a lot of day centers for youngsters and adults who finished their official education or students who are enrolled in schools but need to spend time in our Center after they finish their school classes and activities. I found myself for the first time working in the field of occupational therapy and with users with multiple disabilities and most of them have affected motorics, speech, intellectual abilities etc. 

What does one day in Casa Santa Chiara look like?

First, me and one or two other educators meet at a certain point, and with the special vehicle we pick up four users every morning. Two of them are with Down syndrome, two others are with multiple disabilities and in a wheelchair. It takes some time to position all of them in the vehicle since we use belts for the wheelchairs and they need to be securely fastened, especially that we are on the way to the center in rush hours (mornings when people go to work and afternoon when they come from work). Once we arrive at the center we help users to change themselves and some of them have a small snack. After the snack we have “music time” where one of the educators plays the guitar while we sing and dance with the users. We use “maracas” with some of the users so that we can stimulate the motorics in a way.

After the “music time” one of the educators reads the schedule for the day and we are separated into small groups or pairs of educator(s) and user(s). The schedule changes every day as well as the activity for the day so that the educators and users can get the chance to work with different people and try many different activities/ stimulate different parts of the body and cognition.. Some of the activities are such as the one from the picture, using clay, and sometimes we use some other material, papers, we do colouring, painting, crafts, or we bake pizzas and other pastries that the users take home at the end of the day.

Once the activity is finished it’s lunch time and we prepare the tables and plates where educators eat together with the users. After lunch we all clean the tables and the plates as well as we help users to brush their teeth and do the hygienic routines.

The day finishes around 16:00 when we drive the users back home to their parents. 

On the one hand it’s a challenge to work in such a center – on the other hand it’s a pleasure to see that a center like this can actually work and have amazing educators who are fully committed, positive and professional. 

It would not be nice just to criticize my country – but when I was a student and was visiting such centers in Macedonia the picture was lack of hygiene, lack of professionals and overall a sad picture. Here in Italy, sometimes I feel that I am lucky to have such an opportunity for professional growth. At the same time, I feel like this is how it should be and my country needs to give a lot of effort in order to have normal conditions for the disabled people who visit the day centers.

In Casa Santa Chiara, I also do work with users from Turkish families since I speak Turkish fluently and it can help stimulate the users without speech. I am really thankful for the opportunity to be part of this organization where I learn everyday about what professionalism is and how important it is to do what you love! I am learning everyday something more on a professional but also on a personal level. 

Sofija Stojanovska