Painting a Brighter Future

The Inclusive Education in Action (IEA) works in an excellent project to introduce the concept of inclusion in education through arts, around the world. Part of this project was carried out in Cairo, Egypt, where they worked with students with and without intellectual disabilities. The aims of this project were, at first instance, to use art to promote integration, secondly, to create awareness among young students to gain "future activists", and finally, to apply this kind of classes in schools of general education where inclusion has not been implemented yet. Furthermore, the IEA project is working not only in Africa, but also in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, Arab States and Europe to introduce this concept of inclusion in schools.

To facilitate the inclusion, this project was developed through artistic activities. This helped to create the right atmosphere to work with both groups, considering that art activities have a significant place in the curricula of special education. It offers children with disabilities powerful and memorable learning experiences. For this reason, many special children are even more knowledgeable about the art techniques than those without disabilities. Moreover, these children need to feel self-esteem and develop inner strength, and it is through art that they gain the safeness they need, since there is no way to fail. In addition, many schools in Cairo unfortunately have no direct contact with students with disabilities, and “art” is always a theme of interest among children which facilitates the inclusion.

Another very interesting theme in this project was how the two groups of students envisioned being together in the future. A questionnaire was delivered to both groups to raise awareness about this aim. Furthermore, special teachers prepared students without disabilities to break the stereotypical image they had about their peers with disabilities. These teachers helped students to build up enough confidence to communicate with special students. It was important to involve both groups of students in activities based on principles of equality. To create this kind of awareness among students without disabilities will help to improve the situation of inclusion, not only in the schools of the city of Cairo where this change is very significant, but also around the rest of the world. Young generations have to be conscious about problems of discrimination and segregation, and in that way, get involved with associations that help and fight to have a better society in the future.

If every human being dreams about a better society, the best way to do this is by introducing this kind of projects in every school around the world. The change must begin with children because they are the future, and we are responsible for that change. Adults should help children to develop positive attitudes about their own worth and the worth of others if we all want a caring, non-violent society in which everyone is treated with respect. Consequently, the main goal of IEA project was to create consciousness about inclusion in different schools around the world, and do it though artistic activities provoked favorable results. Some of the students, who participated from this project in Cairo, maintained a friendship and they were invited by the IEA to guide future initiatives in other schools of the city. In United States, for example, the project focused on promoting socialization skills of students with autism through integrated arts activities, which had successful results. In Canada, the design of a curriculum based on creative arts as dance, drama and music for pre-school age children with developmental delays, was really encouraging for teachers who implemented this curriculum in different schools. Just as in Cairo, the IEA project spread all over the world obtaining very positive results.

As it was remarked before, these projects had favorable results for inclusion among young students. In the city of Cairo, where segregation and discrimination is an important issue still nowadays, students without disabilities became defenders of the rights of special students for inclusive purposes. Artists with intellectual disabilities had the opportunity to discover their artistic potential, while working with their peers in artistic activities. Both groups of students produced fantastic ideas about a just society in the future, moreover, they considered the idea of becoming future activists to create in society the consciousness it needs. These kind of projects are really important, people need to be well educated in all aspects, and being noble minded with those people who are special, but not different, create in us a sixth sense needed to build up a better society.

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