In January 2021, Iscos, the solidarity support organisation of the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions (CISL), launched two integration projects in Senegal. DEECLIQ, which stands for ’Décidons d’une Education pour le Enfants en handicaps par des Choix Libres et une approche Inclusive de Qualité’ (Let’s Decide on Education for Children with Disabilities through Free Choice and an Inclusive Quality Approach), and PEEPITE: ‘Parents, Enseignants et Eleves Pour l’Inclusion de Tous à l’Ecole (Parents, Teachers and Pupils for the Inclusion of All at School).

DEECLIQ
This project has been established in partnership with the Association for Rural Cooperation in Africa and Latin America (ACRA)

Its aim is to strengthen the provision of inclusive education in Senegal by improving the quality of education based on international standards. It includes campaigns of identifying children with disabilities in schools and outside the education system, and of making parents and authorities aware of the importance of giving all children, including those with disabilities, a birth certificate and thus acquire a civil status, which will be fundamental to obtain administrative documents such as citizenship certificate, identity card, and the Carte d’égalité des chanceshttps://senegalservices.sn/demarche... (Equality and Opportunity Card).

In total, the project is supporting 2,220 children with disabilities and provides recreational activities to 18,740 children. And, thanks to the financial support of EUR 340,000 from the AICS Dakar (Italian Agency for Development Cooperation), it also provides key support and training actions for inclusive education to 58 officials of the Department of Education. In addition, 102 members of civil society organisations and 98 journalists have been trained on inclusiveness and disability.

Moreover, the project is contributed to Senegal’s sustainable development, particularly to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG) on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all, as well as to Senegal’s national development policies and strategies.

PEEPITE
Funded by the Principality of Monaco, PEEPITE contributes to DEECLIQ by providing the necessary means to purchase teaching materials adapted to the needs of children with disabilities, make the necessary ergonomic adaptation of school materials and equipments; create dedicated mothers’ groups in each village to promote inclusive education; implement awareness-raising sessions on the importance of children’s civil registration; and provide capacity building on disability to educational staff, such as school directors, teachers and inspectors.

Next steps
Social inclusion and support for people with disabilities are main priorities for Iscos. In recent years, Iscos has intervened in favour of the rights of persons with disabilities in different geographical contexts through projects aimed at broadening the skills of teachers, social workers and improving the social context, especially in the field of training, education and professional inclusion.

In Senegal, Iscos will continue to carry on what we started with the Deecliq and Peepite projects through a collaboration with UNICEFto ensure that the inclusion of children with disabilities in schools continues to grow and that school inclusion is effective.