Samar Yahya Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Rania Othman is founder of the Resalt Amal Centre, a specialized rehabilitation and care center for mentally challenged children. She recently spoke to Saudi Gazette about her personal experience as the mother of a mentally challenged child and how his struggle motivated her to take all of the negative and difficult aspects that came with this challenge and create a positive outcome for not only him but also the entire community. Othman's story began 17 years ago with the birth of her son, who was born with a mental disability. Though she initially went through stages of shock and denial, she soon accepted this as her reality and began the stages of finding treatment for him. This constant search to find aid for her son not only took Othman throughout the Kingdom, but also abroad. “On my journey of seeking aid and help in many countries, for example Egypt, Jordan and others, I discovered that I could get good service abroad, but the whole family will be dispersed. “I tried to get the service here as the whole family lives here in Jeddah,” Othman said. While helping her son cope with his mental challenges proved to be trying, throughout this journey Othman remained optimistic. It was during this journey that she discovered some perspective about herself that she never really knew existed. In fact, it was this self-discovery that woke up a desire in her to want to help other families that faced similar challenges. Though initially the only experience Othman had in the field of mental underdevelopment was with her own son, she later accepted a job teaching mentally challenged kids. It was during her tenure at the school where she ultimately formulated the idea for Resalt Amal. With her new goal to open up a center that would provide support for other families with mentally challenged kids, Othman realized she needed more education and enrolled at Caritas Centre in Egypt where she took mandatory courses in the field. Upon completing her studies, Othman returned to the Kingdom with new ideas and a readiness to go through the necessary channels in order to open Resalt Amal. The Ministry of Social Affairs accepted her application and she was able to found the center. The center focuses on specialization and rehabilitation and it achieves these goals by offering the following five services: family guidance, cadres training, student rehabilitation, medical care and society and community awareness. Initially the center opened and provided services for only five students. However, after two years this number drastically increased, which led to the need for a larger facility. As a result, the center was moved to a larger building in Jeddah's Rabwah district. Presently Resalt Amal accepts both mentally challenged and autistic kids, and is operating at its full capacity of 55 students. The center operates under a program that includes several activities during the academic year. In addition to its regular platform, the center holds occasional events and seminars once and sometimes twice a year. During the 2009-2010 academic year, a two-day seminar was held in cooperation with King Saud University and King Abdulaziz University. The seminar honored prominent Arab mothers of mentally challenged children and provided them with a supportive and nourishing environment. The first day consisted of discussions and previewed challenges these mothers may face on a day-to-day basis. The objective was to discuss how they discovered and approached their children's mental issues and eventually overcame them. They also discussed how mothers could positively participate in the field of mentally challenged children for the benefit of not only their children, but for others. The second day was devoted to family guidance, lectures and workshops. This seminar also provided helpful training courses such as “For Their Benefit.” This course is designed to qualify graduate cadres in the field of mental handicaps. The complete course takes 100 hours and is held for three consecutive years with an outcome of 105 trained cadres. Another training course offered during this seminar is “The Speech of Hearts,” which is an awareness program that shows families how to deal with problems related to mental handicaps. Unfortunately, Resalt Amal is not immune to challenges of its own. According to Othman, the main issue the center now faces is finance related. Since the center provides a unique service, it is very costly. The maximum class capacity ranges from eight to 10 children with three teachers, a bus driver and two supervisors on each bus. As a means to overcome financial obstacles, Resalt Amal leans on its “Sponsor to Rehabilitate a Mentally Challenged Child” program. Within this capacity, the center works as the coordinator between parents and the community represented by businesses and/or businessmen to sponsor children from the center. Othman commented that it is her dream to work without any financial pressure and sponsorship. Though she appreciates the outcome of sponsorships, she feels that obtaining funding requires a lot of efforts that could be directed towards the direct care of the children and Resalt Amal's vital programs. “The center works under the umbrella of the Ministry of Social Affairs and receives annual financial support,” Othman said. Othman also underlined two additional programs that Resalt Amal provides. “A Message of Hope” is a 25-hour guidance program divided into two sessions per week devoted to families of mentally challenged children. The program's success is reflected in its repeated seasons for three successive years. The primary goals of the program are to help parents overcome the initial shock of having a mentally challenged child and then assist them in accepting it so that they can begin the treatment process. There's also the “Know Them and Help Them” awareness program, which involves a three-member team that visits companies and businesses and provide lectures and training in order to raise awareness on how to deal with the mentally challenged if members of these groups happen to came in contact with them. In order to register a child on the program, Resalt Amal follows a few simple steps. First it obtains important data on the kid through research and case study. Then it conducts psychological, conversational and educational assessments, which is followed by diagnostic sessions. After the kid is accepted into the program, an annual plan with goals is set individually for each student to achieve during the academic year. These goals are to foster student's conversational, educational, perceptual, movement skills and vocational or pre-vocational for younger pupils. The plan is reviewed regularly to add, remove or update according to the pupil's development stages during the program's day-to-day contact.
