In 2017 I spent 6 months in Nepal working with Disaster relief teams as well as a Centre for Disabled children also known as ABBS.
Having worked with children with special needs in the UK, this was a stark contrast regarding the level of support available. Nepalese culture suggests that to be born with a disability is a curse. This means that facilities like this are often under resourced as well as few and far between. Everyday approximately 21 children (age ranging from 4-20) with a combination of mental and physicial disabilities arrive to be cared for by 4 'Didis' or sisters.
The mornings activities consisted of spliting the children into three groups: children aged 4-8 who spent the morning watching the same alphabet video; children 9 and up who were given notebooks to try and write in; and children who needed daily physio. A childs learning ability was not taken into account.
It became clear when spending time with these children that some of the children really wanted to learn but the over worked Didis struggled to facilitate this.
I thought about a learning aid that many of us have used growing up - a Letter board. This tactile tool allows the children to feel the letters to familiarise themselves with their apperance.
I furthered the learning opportunity by linking the Nepali numbers to engraved English numbers allowing for a further tactile connection to be drawn. This simple low cost solution is nothing ground breaking but the small personalisations allow the children to play and learn without requiring the attention of one of the Didis
I returned to the UK for one month where I spent 3 days designing and manfactuing the board to being back with me on my return.
It was incredible to see the children engaging with the Learning aid and real progress has been shown with the children understanding and linking the characters.