Context Analysis about the Situation of Youngsters and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities in Ramallah area 2013.

Project Overview

The Swedish Organization for Individual Relief (SOIR) is one of the key civil organization that plays a big role in the field of disability , it started its work in Jerusalem in 1966 to target the persons with intellectual disabilities. In 1981-1982 it established the Day Center which is currently located in Al Bireh for the purpose of training teenagers and young adults. It aims at enabling boys and girls/young men and women to enjoy their right to develop their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities. Now it has 15 participants whose age ranged between 14 – 34 years old from the area of Ramallah, Al Bireh, Bethounia, and Hizme. They receive training in daily life skills, physiotherapy, speech therapy, suitable educational training, and pre-vocational training. The Day has during 2012 started to introduce self-advocacy in the work to help parents became more involved and received training in self-advocacy and how to advocate the rights of their sons and daughters in the society and towards decision-makers.SOIR Strategic Platform for 2011 –2020 emphasizes on working in partnership with civil society organizations and to phase out service delivery commitments or strengthen these with relevant components supporting a right based approach. SOIR needs to define its future work in alignment with that platform by conducting a context analysis study about the situation of youngsters and adults with intellectual disabilities in Ramallah area.To this end , SOIR has contracted GCT to undertake this assignment in effective and professional manner. The main objective of the context analysis study was to tackle the whole relevant parties and key items toward enhancing the collaboration in providing the expected services to youngsters and adults with intellectual disabilities, and defining SOIR’s future work in alignment with the Strategic Platform for 2011 –2020. The expected outcomes of this study were to serve as a point of departure for the planning of the next strategic period 2015 -2017.