Eight-year-old Chinar Haji lives at the Sardasht IDP camp in Shingal, and has special needs. She is one of the few lucky disabled IDP children at Sardasht who can go to school.
"My friends respect me because I have special needs. They never hurt me," Chnar said. "I'm very happy that I go to school. I want to be a doctor in the future so that I can heal people like me who have special needs".
There are roughly 250 children with special needs in Shingal’s IDP camps, according to Shingal's Directorate of Education. Only 25 are able to go to school because of a lack of tailored support for disabled students. About 600 displaced children live in Sardasht camp, according to Shingal's Office of Displacement and Migration, and 34 of them of have special needs.
Faris Sheikh Bahri is father to Abeer, a girl with special needs who is not going to school.
"We want her to go to school and learn like everyone else. My wife and I tried a lot but the school did not register her. They told us the education directorate won't accept it," Faris said.
Shingal’s identified special needs children are aged between six to 18, and most have lost a limb. The education directorate does not allow children who cannot walk to go school.
Officials at the education directorate said they are trying their best to enrol the children at schools.
"Children with special needs have the right to finish their studies. But our schools don’t accept them because we don’t have the ability to take care of them. They need a special school", said Saad Hamad Mato, the directorate's head of Arabic studies.
by Tahsin Qasim
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