Mini Basma

Annual Report - Year 2009 - 2010

A dream is broken, a dream is rebuilt

draw a dream
Editorial
Dear friends, colleagues, parents and youth,

Every year at SESOBEL we choose a theme for our team, children and youth of SESOBEL to
reflect upon. For the year 2009-2010, our theme is, The Elegance of the Heart, which we
define as the way to understand life without dramatizing it, to accept others despite their
differences and without any prejudice or judgments.
This elegance of the heart has always accompanied our actions and has permitted us to
face ever growing challenges: 512 children and youth have benefited from our services, a
number that continues to increase, thus making SESOBEL a key player in the management
of disabilities in Lebanon. We face new needs as they emerge, such as limited overnight
stays for autistic youth to help in their gradual preparation for adult life.
With the goal of meeting the expectations of professionals who were concerned with
disability issues, SESOBEL has opened a training center, which this year received 182
individuals from different NGOs and universities. In partnership with the European Institute
for Cooperation and Development (IECD), we also provided training sessions on mental
disability for 25 Syrian NGOs.
A project entitled “Children Advocating Children’s Rights” was the highlight of the year 2009-
2010. The project was started in 2006 to promote the rights of every child, disabled or not.
During a ceremony held at the UNESCO palace, a group of SESOBEL youth and students from
eight different Lebanese schools submitted a list of recommendations to realize the rights
that were set out during the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We were able to carry out these innovative projects of national significance despite a
decline in our earnings last year because of a decree related to the high cost of living,
issued by the Lebanese government and which targets public and private organizations.
The support provided by all our partners – various organizations and public or private
foundations – has permitted SESOBEL to surpass these difficult times and has brought us
closer this year to achieving our initial goals.
Meanwhile, our marketing department has recorded a net earnings growth (+5%) due to
the dedicated help of all our friends and volunteers. We have also diversified our funding
resources thanks to new procedures such as the sponsorship of therapy for children and
youth with disabilities.
In order to sustain our efforts while improving the quality of our services, several objectives
have been set for the year 2010-2011: tighter control of expenses, looking for an equity capital
increase, structuring the communications department, updating our computer system, etc.
We have also proposed the creation of a pilot center in Lebanon to welcome and support
children and youth with autism, using a holistic and interdisciplinary approach.
We make these commitments towards our partners and colleagues, without whom nothing
would be possible, but also towards the children and their families who we receive every day
and who are at the heart of our services.

Fadia Safi
Président Directeur Général
Our MISSION
- To assist the disabled child lead a happy life full of hope despite his disability and
the difficulties he faces.
- To support and assist the family, keeping in mind that a disability is not a reason to
remove the child from his environment.
- To work with the different components of society to recognize the value of the
disabled child and his right to live in dignity no matter the nature of his disability.
- To work for the prevention of disabilities.

STATISTIQUES

Handicap

Age

Family Monthly Income

1$=1500L.L.
 PROGRAMS AND SERVICES Year 2009 – 2010
Received 512 children and youth
The Family Reception Service / SAF 73 children

Educational Programs
Kindergarten 27 children

Mental disability program 81 children

Physical disability program 57 children

Pervasive developmental disorders 44 children

VRP, Vocational Rehabilitation Program, Ain El-Rihani 30 youth

Ambulatory Program 106 youth

External care program 20 person

The Gait and Motion Analysis lab

61 person

Regional welcome center at Jezzine

Academic inclusion class at Jezzine’s public school 9 children
VRP, Regional Produce at Kfarhouna 4 youth

REHABILITATION PROGRAM

Medical and rehabilitative support to 512 children and youth

Medical and paramedical checkups – Medical exams and consultation – surgery –
treatments (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, respiratory care,
psychomotricity, etc.)
18,527 actions taken

THE SOCIAL ACTION

Accompany 485 families
Diagnostics and orientation 53 Familles Interviews at SESOBEL 1,021 interviews
Home visits 385 Visit Siblings intervention 5 meetings, 1 day trip,
Hospital visits 63 Visit 2 recreational outings
Photos of our Children

Rehabilitation
In class and at the workshops
Extra-curricular activities
 THE YEAR'S MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS

TRAINING CENTER
At the dawn of its 35 years in the service of children with disabilities and their families,
SESOBEL, in cooperation with the French Embassy in Lebanon, organized for two
consecutive years – from 2009 to 2011 – a number of training classes that dealt with
different aspects of disability. The aim of these classes was to:

1- Raise awareness about the cause and the rights of people with disabilities.
2- Promote the quality of care and support provided to people with disabilities.
3- Enhance the intervention capabilities and expertise of the professionals who assist
people with disabilities.
4- Involve parents in implementing their child’s life project, thus fostering the child’s
integration in the socio-economic fabric of society.

The training targeted professionals who were concerned with the issues of disabilities
and who work at NGOs and/or Lebanese universities: speech therapists,
physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psycomotor therapists, psychologists,
social workers and special education teachers.

November 2009
Module I: Global Functional Motor Evaluation.
Module II: Motor Function Measure (MFM)
Module III: Organization within socio-medical institutions.
Speaker: Mrs. Françoise Girardot, kinesiotherapist – Lyon Hospitals

December 2009
Module IV: Keeping progress records and reporting, the work team, the
multidisciplinary team, the review meeting.
Speaker: Mr. Jean- Marie Miramon, (former General Manager of ADAGES),
psychologist, technical advisor, consultant, professor (graduate level) at the
universities of Toulouse, Montpellier and Marseille.
 February 2010
Module V: Swallowing – Orality – Eating for babies and children. Neuro-alimentary
support for people with cerebral palsy.
Speaker: Mrs. Catherine Senez, SLP who specializes in eating disorders, Bobath
trainer.

April 2010
Module VI: Neuro-functional approach to autism: from brain exploration to
therapeutics – Exchange and Developmental Therapy: articulation with group
practice.
Speakers:
- Professor Catherine Barthélemy, child psychiatrist, neurophysiologist, professor,
head of department at the Tours University Hospital's child psychiatry department.
- Mrs. Pascale Dansart, SLP in child psychiatry at the Bretonneau Tours University
Hospital.

June 2010
Module VII: Intellectual disability and early intervention.
Speakers:
-Dr. Anne Dispa, child psychiatrist.
-Dr. Jean-Noël Trouvé, child psychiatrist.

The topics that were covered allowed the professionals to get answers to problems
that they faced (the real impact on daily practice). They also favored the opening up
of care giving to new methods of intervention and efficient, rich and accessible care.

Certificates were distributed to all training participants:

182 people; 172 from 32 different organizations and 10 in a private capacity.
EXPERTISE MISSION IN SYRIA

In November 2009, the European Institute for Cooperation and Development

commissioned SESOBEL's training center to make an expertise mission in Syria, with
the objective of conducting a comprehensive study on the premises and,
consequently, proposing areas of consistent improvement, in terms of technical
support (training, guidance and support).

An action plan was proposed which focuses on strengthening the expertise of

people working in the facilities and on practice development. This plan will be
carried out through:
-training and teaching sessions.
-supervision, practice and staff support.
-conducting evaluations of the global action plan by a person in charge at SESOBEL.
Since April 2010, three training sessions on mental disability have been conducted
at the « Al Ard » Centre in Homs.
Basic course (1)
Intellectual disability
Basic course (2)
Intellectual disability
Basic course (3)
The educational project of the person with intellectual disability

PARENTAL GUIDANCE
During the year 2009 – 2010, psychologists and social workers organized group
sessions for parental guidance, which targeted two main topics: "Parenting skills" and
"The appropriation of power".

The objective of the session on parenting skills is to arm parents with the necessary
skills and techniques for the development and enhancement of their skills. As for the
sessions on the appropriation of power, the goal is to enhance the mothers' self-
esteem and increase their capacity to be assertive by switching from the role of
passive spectator to that of player and decision maker.

The two-hour long sessions, moderated by the speakers, were presented in the form
of workshops that included parents' testimonials on the daily difficulties they face, as
well as practice and role-playing. At the end of the sessions, the speakers shared
some scientific information with the participants.

Participants: 11 mothers + 10 couples.

 LIVING ENVRIONMENT

In 2009/2010, we launched the program “Living environment for young autistic

children” with the objective of creating for them a temporary home adapted to their
disability and in which they can learn and discover how to live in a group outside of
their home.

The objective of this program is to:

- Enable our young autistic children to live in a group, but in the right conditions.
- Prepare them to live by themselves after their parents are gone.
- Relieve the parents who are extremely tired from the constant presence of their
autistic child.
- Allow the siblings to blossom under the best conditions, while benefiting from a
peaceful family atmosphere.
- Help society evolve by:
- Presenting a specific structure that is currently missing from the Lebanese society.
- Creating a single control group in Lebanon that will allow better support for the autistic.

Beneficiaries: 15 youth with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (Autism).

 CHILDREN ADVOCATING CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Every child has the right to live like a human being with full
rights and without any discrimination.
It was not by pure chance that SESOEBL decided to promote children's rights. On the
contrary, it was the result of a long period of reflection following a remark by a
SESOBEL youth:
“We have had enough of people walking by us and looking at us as if we were
objects, and then leaving without even having tried to communicate with us, or
getting to know us, without having had the chance to even talk to them.”

Thus the project Children Advocating Children’s rights began. It allowed our youth
with disabilities to meet and discuss with other people from the same age, and to
get to know each other and to share valuable experiences together. As our founder
Yvonne Chami says, our objective is to rehabilitate the healthy people and put them
in direct contact with those with a disability.

The different steps of the project:

Step 1: During the year 2009/2010, the children and youth of SESOBEL visited eight
schools where they talked in front of 528 students about the Rights of the Child,
based on article 23 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child,
adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
Step 2: Each of the schools which were visited was in charge of organizing an activity
pertaining to the right of the child: songs, dances, murals, documentaries, etc.
Step 3: Together, the students and the SESOBEL youth launched a campaign to
pressure social and political officials to preserve the rights of the child.

The project ended with a ceremony organized on Thursday, May 20, 2010 at the
UNESCO Palace. The SESOBEL children and the students were able to discuss their
rights with the participants of the roundtable and provided them with the following
list of recommendations :

- Issue a special card for children under the age of 18, which will let them have access
to recreational activities at a reduced price.
- Exempt all children of entry fees to tourist sites.
- Educate the children, their parents and the teachers about the rights of the child, in
accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly, and work to implement it.
- Ensure the right to protection against violence. Create a hot line.
- Enact new laws to prevent child labor and trafficking.
- Work towards integrating children with special needs in private and public schools.
Provide support to these schools by providing them with equipment to renovate
school buildings to make them handicap accessible, training the staff members, as
well as making sure adequate services are available to make the children’s
integration a success.

- Turn these schools into “friendly schools” through the development of school
curricula that are adapted to all students in order to boost academic integration.

- Establish platforms in public and private schools through which the students will be
able to assert their rights and express themselves.
TESTIMONIALS
A thousand reasons to smile
Today I know that SESOBEL is not only a school for children with disabilities, but a
school for all of us; a school where we learn about real human values; where
children teach us, through their enthusiasm and their joy, that if life gives us a good
reason to cry, we can give it a thousand better reasons to smile.
Guéry Nasr, member of the Volunteers' Committee

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Sesobel’s finances are monitored by two auditing firms:

Antoine J. Haddad - Lebanon
Ernst & Young - France
 www.sesobel.org

Ain El-Rihani, Street 11, Kesrouan

Po. Box : 551 Zouk-Mikaël - Lebanon
Tel : +961 9 233 940 / 2
Fax : +961 9 233 943