Child-to-child clubs building a more peaceful society for learners with disabilities. Lessons from Kenya, Zambia, Bangladesh and Cameroon.

• In Event: Implementing Inclusive Education for Learners with Disabilities: Policies, Practices, and Global Perspectives

Proposal

The program intervention
Child-to-child clubs provide safe spaces for children to develop essential life skills like leadership, teamwork, and conflict resolution, which are crucial for building a more peaceful society. They empower them to become agents of change within their communities, promoting safety, understanding, and positive social change. As an international organisation supporting the needs of learners with disabilities, child-to-child clubs make a real difference in fostering peer support and understanding between learners with disabilities and their classmates, addressing issues of stigma and discrimination and providing a place where learners can thrive. Learners with disabilities have the opportunity to take on leadership roles, voice their opinions and demonstrate their strengths in an informal setting.

We will discuss learning from Kenya, Cameroon, Bangladesh and Zambia, reflecting on the value of child-to-child clubs for learners with disabilities as they study in mainstream, inclusive school settings and how this contributes to building more peaceful schools.

Methods, guiding frameworks and applications.
In Kenya, community-based participatory research gathered the views of primary school learners with disabilities about their experiences in school. Learners identified issues such as inaccessible infrastructure, large classes and unadapted exam papers, and a common thread was the behaviour of their peers. Many described how they enjoyed playing and interacting with friends. All learners wanted to be respected, valued and cared for but some reported that their peers were unkind to them, bullying and asking uncomfortable questions about their disability.
These are not uncommon challenges for learners with disabilities and we devised strategies for addressing the issues raised. The establishment of peer support groups provided a structure for learners with and without disabilities to meet and interact. They are adapted to particular school contexts and systems to ensure their sustainability, but all groups include teacher supported sessions to address issues of stigma and discrimination, the provision of social games to encourage relaxed interaction, and monitoring to ensure that the needs of learners with disabilities are addressed.
In Cameroon the focus is on establishing girls’ clubs to empower girls with disabilities and increase their participation in school life. A committee composed of the school’s gender focal point, safeguarding focal point and the inclusion lead oversees the new club and they call on people to run particular activities. Activities have two main objectives firstly awareness raising for girls on how to prevent violence and opportunities to discuss socio-cultural barriers and life lessons that can help with their social integration and secondly introducing girls to extra-curricular activities and the opportunity to gain extra skills.

In Bangladesh, the inclusion of learners is addressed through working with Student Councils. These support curricular and extra-curricular activities with a focus on fun and friendship, rather than formal learning. Student Councils contribute to an environment in which all learners are welcoming to those with disabilities within the classroom and in the school environment, and where learners with disabilities are encouraged to take on leadership roles. They are supported to engage freely with each other in both classroom and extra-curricular activities, building confidence, contributing equally to group work and developing competencies which enable them to positively engage in society.

In Zambia ‘Buddy Clubs’ encourage better interaction between all learners and provide a forum for them to discuss issues of stigma and discrimination. Sessions are carefully managed by teachers and include opportunities for dialogue about disability. Existing health and nutrition clubs are adapted to become more responsive to issues where learners with disabilities might require additional support, for example targeted provision of menstrual hygiene packs for girls. The provision of games such as chess are a focus for positive social interaction.

Successes and areas for improvement.
Evidence from project monitoring and evaluation has demonstrated that child-to-child clubs have a positive benefit for learners with and without disabilities. In an end of project evaluation in Zambia teachers observed that these clubs helped all learners, to integrate, learn, and play together, creating a more inclusive and unified school environment. Learners with disabilities participated more fully in school life and co-curricular activities, marking a shift toward genuine inclusion.

In Cameroon, the clubs are widely seen as successful. They meet weekly, are dynamic and have clear, realistic and achievable action plans. A learning visit carried out by a colleague from Senegal identified successes such as involving the school management team in the establishment of the clubs, regular meetings and establishment of a forum for girls to meet in a safe space. Areas for improvement included involving broader school governance structures such as the parent teacher associations to help their understanding of the issues for girls with disabilities, more formal documentation of some of the activities of the clubs and a more in-depth discussion about the particular needs of girls with disabilities. The participation of boys in the clubs is also being addressed.

In Bangladesh, the opportunity for learners to take on leadership roles was a particular success. It was also noted that learners who have positive experiences in school help to dispel misconceptions around disability within their families and the wider community.
Impact
These clubs encourage the improved inclusion of learners with disabilities with their peers. They are only one of many strategies used to improve disability inclusion in schools, but provide a safe space in which disability issues can be discussed in understandable terms for learners of different ages. They provide an informal setting where learners develop essential life skills and become agents of change asserting their own ideas and participating meaningfully in their own education. Starting by building a more peaceful school environment, they take their learning back to their homes and communities. Most importantly, learners with disabilities value the clubs and report that they improve interaction with their peers.

Authors

• Veronica M Stapleton, Sightsavers

• Janet Elise Hayes

• Hamish Higginson