Our fifteen IBM team members spent most of the today with the wonderful people of the non-profit:AMSAT (Moroccan association for support and assistance to people with down syndrome, http://www.amsat.ma/). The picture below contains the AMSAT logo (left), IBM CSC Morocco9 team (top right), two of our team members (George and Jessica) working with paper formation with two students(right middle) and two more team members (Kent and David) working with a young adult on her horse back riding (bottom right). #ibmcsc @ibmccs #cscmorocco9
The mission of AMSAT is
- Participate in the general progress of our society by the management of different people.
- Welcome, listen, inform, guide the child with Down syndrome and their families.
- Promote the process of co-education and move towards self-determination:
- considering the whole person.
- bringing families and young people to build a life plan.
- by offering individual projects with the objective development of the person with Down syndrome.
- Promote independence.
- Working for social integration in all its components: family, school, work, sports and cultural.
- Implement all that may be necessary in physical, intellectual and moral of the trisomic person in accordance with their aspirations.
- Defend and promote the social inclusion of people with Down syndrome.
There is a great need for this type of organization in Rabat and Morocco The public school system is not setup to help with special needs children. AMSAT is the only non-profit in Rabat that is addressing the needs of children with Down syndrome and integrating them into the Moroccan society. The AMSAT facility in Rabat currently serves 300 children with Down syndrome and has a waiting list of over 600.
Our IBM CSC Morocco 9team spent the morning and early afternoon visiting the school and working with the children in various workshops which involved cooking, gardening, painting, paperwork and horse back riding.
The pictures above show the wonderful talents that are being realized in these children and how for one day, the CSC team was able to interact and contribute to their growth. Their artwork was awesome, cooking and restaurant that they run was excellent (that is me and one of my IBM coworkers from Korea on the right middle enjoying the meal that the residents and some of our team prepared) and their horse back riding skills were strong.
I worked with David (India), Kent (US) and Lucrecia (Spain) on the kids horse back riding during the morning. The experience was deeply moving and educational. Children with Down syndrome have different levels of developmental disabilities. One of the key issues is the coordination between the arms (upper body) and legs (low body). Normal children develop this coordination at a very young age, children with Down syndrome often do not and it has to be systematically taught to them. Horseback riding is a very good way to teach these skills. The coordination has to be developed so the kids can get on a horse and ride it. Even further coordination is needed to direct the horse to ride in the direction needed. This is taught to them in a very supportive and comfortable environment. The children are excited and passionate about the sport.
Their smiles and engagement is a memory that I will have for the rest of my life. 🙂