Georgetown: Every child is entitled to a quality education, it is an inalienable right. However, not everyone learns the same way or at the same pace. There are and have been cases of children who have, special education needs and require a different approach to be able to grasp the concepts that their colleagues would catch in a heartbeat.
As such, in 2014, at the fifth CARICOM-Cuba Summit, a decision was made that Cuba would cooperate with CARICOM to create a Training Centre for the Treatment of Physical Disabilities to assist physically challenged children and youths. This was one year after a high level ministerial meeting in Haiti where the Petionville Declaration made recommendations for regional and national actions to address the needs of people with disabilities.
At the signing ceremony, the CARICOM Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque, said, “this project emphasises the interest of all parties to address a very important social and humanitarian challenge facing the Region. It aims to use Cuba’s extensive experience in this area to assist CARICOM member States in improving the lives of a vulnerable sector of our population”
With the establishment of such a Centre it is expected that there would be an improvement in teachers training for providing education to persons with disabilities, improved diagnosis quality and effectiveness and stimulation in the development of children, adolescents, youth and adults with disabilities, improvement in the quality of life of persons with disabilities in any context and model the validation of the regional training centre to provide comprehensive educational attention to children, adolescents and youth with disabilities.
In 2016, CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, and then Cuban Ambassador to Guyana, Julio Cesar Gonsalez Marchante signed a Tripartite Cooperation and Technical Assistance Agreement at a Ceremony held at the CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana. The agreement led to the establishment of the “Regional Training Centre for Development and Stimulation of Children, Adolescents and Young People with Special Educational Needs Associated with Disabilities.”
This centre would serve the entire region, and would not only train the necessary persons to be able to better teach and interact with children with special needs, but would also diagnose and provide the best tailored learning system for every child that needed its help. Perhaps even more than this is that the centre would not only serve its host country (Guyana) but would extend its services to the entire Caribbean region
In November of 2018, the centre was completed. The Cuban government provided the technical staff to train the staff members of the facility. These technical staff have proven invaluable to the facility, not only providing the necessary training for the staff there, but going all the way to assist in the process of imparting treatment.
The centre is open and available to any and everyone within the region. What this basically means is that a parent or guardian who may feel as though their child has a learning deficit can feel free to apply for their child to enter the facility. Granted that the application is approved, they will go through a thorough interview process, beginning the process for admission to the facility.
Since the commencement of construction of the facility present, there have been official visits from the Cuban Vice Foreign Minister in 2018 and most recently on his Guyana Leg of his Regional Tour to the Caribbean, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla.
For him, seeing the centre up and running was a moving experience.
“I am deeply moved, there is a special bond between Guyana and Cuba and it is a very special experience to see specialists from both countries working together for the sake of children, adolescents and youths with special needs. I hope that we can continue working to better explore new areas of interest and enhance bilateral relationships.”
With the establishment of this centre and possibly others like it, a major step has been taken to ensure that every child can get the education they are entitled to regardless of whatever hurdles they may have to cross. It also stands as a testament to the strong diplomatic ties shared not only between CARICOM and Cuba but more importantly, Guyana and Cuba as a whole.
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