Creating a "Disability-Friendly" Childhood Development Program in the Maldives
By Barbara Kolucki (bakoluck@aol.com)
The Maldives is comprised of approximately 1200 islands, around 200 of which are inhabited. Almost 40 percent of the islands have a population of less than 500 people. These islands are scattered across an area of over 90,000 square kilometers of ocean. No matter where one needs to go, one must take a boat or, in the case of a select few islands, an air taxi plane. Isolation is an underlying condition that inhibits change and learning opportunities. Providing education, health and other services to such small numbers can prove a formidable challenge, although much progress has been made over the past decade in areas such as universal child immunization, near exclusive breast-feeding, etc. Nearly everything must be imported to the country - this includes all educational material, most food, media hardware and software - even building materials.
 UNICEF has defined Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) as one of its global priorities for the year 2000 and beyond. Specially, the work is guided by the pursuit of "infants and young children nurtured in a caring environment, physically healthy, mentally alert, socially stimulated and able to learn". Many countries have begun to address ECCD in various ways.
In 1999, the then UNICEF Assistant Representative, Ms. Rina Gill, initiated a pioneering ECCD strategy with the Government. The strategy is pioneering for several reasons:
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It is not based on re-inventing the wheel, but rather it has drawn from the demonstrated strengths and experience of people, projects and research over the last 15 years or more.
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It is based on local Maldivian culture and practices as well as its unique geography and nature.
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It is based on developing national capacity in the area of ECCD and in developing media for and about children.
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It is based on creating a culture of media for and about children between the ages of 0-5 years where both children and their caregivers see themselves reflected in a variety of media, are provided with simple, practical, low literacy yet high quality media of ECCD interventions.
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It consciously and consistently includes children and adults with disability in all of its work.
I have served as the ECCD Children's Media Consultant to this project since 1999. In this capacity, I have written the proposed ECCD Strategy Paper, trained and worked with a local team educators and media, developed a core curriculum for an ECCD 52-Week Multi Campaign and, together with the ECCD local team, developed a wide range of prototype materials for and about children.
Challenges of Materials Development
 The prototype materials are aimed at either children between the ages of 0-5 years or for their caregivers. All but two items are based on photographs where Maldivian children and adults can see themselves. There are books for children called "Look at Me" portraying young children learning simple tasks and taking pride in learning and achieving. There is a book for older children/adolescents that gives them dozens of simple, fun, educational activities that they can do with their young sisters and brothers while they are "watching over" them. There are wall charts and posters for caregivers (both men and women) that show them what they can do to nurture and stimulate their child's brain and body together with why this is important and beneficial to the child. In the Maldives, one sees very few children or adults with disabilities. Even with the small population on the islands, children and adults with disabilities are conspicuous by their absence. Anecdotal information from a variety of sources indicates that parents are ashamed if their children are disabled, and that there are virtually no trained persons to assist families with children under 5 years who are disabled. Children or adults with disabilities are almost never seen or positively portrayed in any media. There are a few exceptions: there is one trained speech therapist in the capital, Male' there is a multi-level class for children who are hearing impaired in Male', and, there is one teacher working with students who are blind in one school in Male'. A new NGO, CARE, has recently initiated several activities including the training of teachers for children with special needs. The potential of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programming is explored by the Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs.
In the course of developing the prototype media, we adhered to the principle of including children and adults with disabilities in as many products as possible. This was not easy for many reasons. First, it required identifying children and adults. Then, many parents and grandparents were not comfortable and were fearful of having their children's or their own photographs taken for any publication-this was never done before and the images that they had seen were more of the stereotypical "development messages on prevention of disability".
But as in every country, there were people who were not only willing but happy to be pioneers. They were doing their best for their children and were not ashamed of them in any way. Or, there were adults (men) who were capable, working and disabled. The only group who declined to be photographed has been women/mothers who are disabled. Their reasons ranged from personal shyness and fear, the fact that their husbands or parents were not cooperative or, they simply could not believe that the images that would be portrayed would be positive. The hope is that once they see the prototypes, this attitude will change for the next set of materials.
Confronting Prejudice and Superstition
 One parent of a child with Down Syndrome, recently spoke with the UNICEF team. She said "Most people in the Maldives think that kids who are different or disabled are 'mad' - that is what they will call them if they see someone like our son on the street. Because we don't hide Yaish - we hear this a lot when we are out. We get hurt, of course, but not offended. We want to show the public that we are not cursed. We learn a lot and get a lot from having Yaish in our lives. If there were more books and media like the book about Yaish and other different or disabled kids, people would see that they are not 'mad'. At his school, they have gotten to know him and everyone loves him. If we get to know more kids like these, we will love them as well."
Examples of New Inclusive Public Education Materials
Some examples of inclusion of information about, or persons with, disability in the Maldives ECCD strategy thus far include:
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There are twelve core ECCD messages for caregivers. Information about detection, stimulation and inclusion are included in several and there is one message devoted entirely to infants and young children with disability.
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The Principles and Guidelines for Production that we developed, include directives that to the extent possible, children and adults who are disabled should be included in all media and activities.
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There are wallcharts about all the things that men can do to nurture and provide caregiving to their infants. One of the fathers in the poster uses a wheelchair and is sharing the fact that he is careful about the cleanliness and size of objects he allows his baby to put into his mouth.
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In a wallchart about the most important things that a parent can do for a child in the first year of her life, included is a message about detection of disability.
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There are two books in what will be a series called "Everybody Loves Me" about the importance of play in the life of a young child. One of the books is about a boy with Down Syndrome and the variety of play activities that his family and community members do with him. As far as can be determined, it is the first book for children about a Maldivian child with a disability.
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There is another series for children called "Look at Me" designed to help with building the self-esteem of all children. In the two books, two girls, one with a hearing impairment and one with cerebral palsy are included along with all other children.
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In the book for older children "watching over" young sisters and brothers, there are examples of older siblings with mental and physical impairment care for, nurturing and teaching the young one. These include an older boy with Down Syndrome and an adolescent girl who is blind.
Comprehensive Radio/Television Campaign
In addition to the print materials, a 52 week radio and television campaign is now underway on the topic of Early Childhood Care and Development. Many are simple stories about real people and the simple, practical actions that anyone can take to improve the lives of children 0-5 years. Children with disabilities are included in many of the spots. In some instances, children with and without disabilities participate in a variety of play-based activities. In others, disability detection is modeled. But the main message, explicit and implicit is that children and adults with disability can learn and be a joy to any family. Some of these examples include:
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The "promo" piece to advertise the campaign includes several babies and young children - including those that are disabled.
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A radio spot where a child with cerebral palsy is playfully talking with her father. This is the first time that any Maldivian with cerebral palsy has ever been featured in the mass media here. Her speech is difficult but not impossible to understand. She has a little "fight" with her father when he teases her about a playful event that recently happened. We purposefully encouraged a very "natural production" and what some might consider "unnatural pauses" and are waiting to see what audiences think and say.
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A television spot featuring a mother of a young boy with Down Syndrome as the "voice-over," describing appealing and playful scenes of her chasing, hugging and loving the child - as well as his play with a group of cousins. The mother talks about her initial fear and disappointment, but stresses that he is a full-fledged family member today. An example is when she visits any relatives and doesn't bring him along - they get upset with her.
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A "parachute" game where older siblings hold onto the "parachute and younger ones run under it without being caught includes older siblings who are disabled. They are "responsible" for watching over and nurturing the little ones.
Launch Features Maldives President with Disabled & Non-Disabled Children
An official launching of the Project took place on May 10, 2001. The President of Maldives is greeted by four little ones and escorted onto the stage. For the first time on national television, a child with cerebral palsy was one of many children featured. This programme is in its infancy. It is part of the current "Master Plan of Operations" between UNICEF and the Government of the Maldives. Many UNICEF offices have supported exemplary projects and programmes for children with disabilities. Although it has been a mandate of UNICEF's, it has sadly been, however, up to the individual interest and enlightenment of management and programme staff in Country Offices whether this has happened or not. There are Programme Guidelines on Disability that have been developed by UNICEF Headquarters. However, the question many people ask is "how does this translate into doable, concrete actions". The examples from the Maldives show how to "walk the walk" with regard to the UNICEF Mandate and the UNICEF Programme Guidelines, as well as adhering to the letter and spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child vis-à-vis disability.
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