Stories From the Field: Inclusive Community-Based Programs Around the World
Childhood Education International is proud to collaborate with the Zero Project, an organization working for a world with zero barriers. Worldwide, the Zero Project finds and shares solutions that improve the daily lives and legal rights of all persons with disabilities.
CE International in partnership with the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute invited a small group of awardees to share their innovations through short interviews. These videos highlight the work of seven 2024 Zero Project Awardees. Below are overviews and videos highlighting the work of these experts, whose innovations are improving disability inclusion for children, families, and communities.
We are grateful to these awardees from across the globe for generously sharing their time and voices to tell others about their work and elevate the voices of the children and families in their communities.
2024 Zero Project Awardees
Learn more about each project and their innovations to build inclusive opportunities for young children:
- Access to Inclusive Education for Equitable Employment of Children & Youth with Visual Impairments
- Bridge of Hope: Combining Pedagogical and Psychological Support Services in Inclusive Classrooms
- Caminos de Tiza: Therapeutic and Pedagogical Services to Children in Remote Areas
- Emergency Early Childhood Intervention Supporting Over 12,000 Ukrainian Refugees
- LoveForLife (LFL): Offering Personalized Parent-Child Counseling & Early Intervention Services
- Tunafasi: Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Varanda School: A Community-Driven & Low-Cost School System for Children in Rural Areas
All Awardees
In this video, the 2024 Zero Project Awardees share their words of wisdom and encouragement to others working toward early childhood inclusion.
Access to Inclusive Education for Equitable Employment of Children & Youth with Visual Impairments
Implementation: Kenya
Kilimanjaro Blind Trust Africa (KBTA) provides assistive devices and digital curriculum content for users of digital Braille. Between 2018 and 2023, they equipped 3,000 learners in six countries with assistive technologies.
Problems Targeted
Visually impaired African children and youth face tremendous barriers to quality education and employment, particularly access to digital literacy and skills.
Innovation
The model uses affordable, multi-functional digital Braille assistive devices that enable access to quality education. Visually impaired learners actively participate in their classrooms, with the teachers to engage with them.
Bridge of Hope: Combining Pedagogical and Psychological Support Services in Inclusive Classrooms
Implementation: Armenia
Bridge of Hope’s Support Services provides support services in 135 mainstream schools and kindergartens in Armenia. By 2022, 550 children with disabilities were enrolled, influencing Armenia’s inclusive education policies.
Problems Targeted
Limited access to mainstream schools and education curricula is a major challenge in Armenia, as is the failure to create inclusive educational environments in schools.
Innovation
This project offers individualized support to children with disabilities, starting with an assessment of each child´s unique requirements, parental engagement, and community sensitization activities.
Caminos de Tiza: Therapeutic and Pedagogical Services to Children in Remote Areas
Implementation: Argentina
Caminos de Tiza, run by the Argentine NGO Escuelita Ambulante, delivers therapeutic and educational support to children and youth with disabilities in isolated areas along the Argentina/Brazil/Paraguay border.
Problems Targeted
In remote regions of Argentina and especially for indigenous communities, there is a lack of therapeutic, pedagogical, and educational services for children with disabilities.
Innovation
Utilizing a mobile bus, this program offers therapeutic and educational services to children and youth with disabilities in remote rural areas, focusing on indigenous communities.
Emergency Early Childhood Intervention Supporting Over 12,000 Ukrainian Refugees
Implementation: Bulgaria
EASPD provided emergency early child interventions to over 12,000 Ukrainian children and parents who have been displaced by war.
Problems Targeted
Refugee families with small children who have disabilities and/or developmental delays face even greater difficulties in accessing support, especially cross-nationally.
Innovation
This 18-month project formed new models for transnational cooperation and a large database of tools and materials, all of which can be easily adapted to other regions experiencing distress.
This project was implemented within a partnership between UNICEF and EASPD. Funding is provided by the United States Government. The contents of the video are the sole responsibility of EASPD.
LoveForLife (LFL): Offering Personalized Parent-Child Counseling & Early Intervention Services
Implementation: India
LoveForLife Rehabilitation Services (LFL Care) is a start-up organization recognized by the Government of India and based in New Delhi. LFL Care offers quality personalized parent-child counseling and early intervention programs for children with special needs throughout India as a paid service.
Problems Targeted
In India, children with disabilities have limited access to early diagnosis, health care, and rehabilitation services, especially in remote areas.
Innovation
LFL Care provides integrated therapeutic services that follow a multidisciplinary clinical approach for early intervention and child development assessments. LFL offers personalized home-based services.
Tunafasi: Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa
Implementation: Democratic Republic of Congo
Tunafasi is a project implemented to provide quality inclusive education to children with disabilities in mainstream schools. Between 2020 and 2023, Tunafasi raised the school attendance of children with disabilities from 5% to 68.5% in its region.
Problems Targeted
In the Uvira region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, children with disabilities face barriers to receiving a quality education, including non-accessible classrooms and teaching methods, societal stigma, and the challenges posed by poverty.
Innovation
This project improves the accessibility of schools, delivering specialized training to teachers and staff in inclusive teaching and supplying proper materials and tools. Tunafasi actively engages in community-based inclusive development by empowering parents and families through the establishment of self-advocacy groups.
Varanda School: A Community-Driven & Low-Cost School System for Children in Rural Areas
Implementation: Bangladesh
The Varanda School provides early intervention, early childhood education, and play-based preschool education for children with and without disabilities.
Problems Targeted
In rural Bangladesh young children with disabilities need individual assistance to enroll in and have access to education.
Innovation
This is a cost-effective and community-based solution to activate inclusive education. The school operates in a space provided by the community, with young people working as volunteers and parents as leaders.