Training workshops for inclusion of people with special needs in scouting

As part of a strategy to challenge the exclusion of people with special needs from community, the Open Minds and Include associations have jointly carried out training activities within the slogan: ‘The Year 2016, a Beginning for the Inclusion of People with Special Needs in Lebanon’.  The workshops, organized in partnership with Scouts Lebanon and Women Guides Lebanon, aimed at the rehabilitation of the scouts cadres to receive young men and women with special needs/disabilities in preparation for their integration with society. For that reason, some 100 male and female cadres from the above Scouts and Guides Lebanon associations completed workshops under the supervision of the integration officer at the French Ministry of Education in Toulouse, Jean Philippe Lacaze and the former member of the General Commissioner for Scouts, ‘Include’ member, Fadi Asmar. Training was held end of last year in monasteries in Deir Sayidit El Bir, Bsalim and Beit Anya and Harisa and Saint Joseph University in Beirut. The ultimate goal of the above initiative is to integrate around 200 young men and women with special needs in both Scouts Lebanon and Women Guides Lebanon Associations. This number is expected to gradually increase so as to address the needs of people with special needs who currently account for 10% of Lebanon’s populatio according to official data. (An Nahar, January 5, 2016)