Imedi - Integrated Resource Centre
      for Pre-School Aged Children with Disabilities

Due to lack of funding the Centre Imedi's operation is temporarily suspended!

The Centre implements programmes aimed at rendering assistance of children with disabilities and their integration
into society.
The programmes
apply to ninety
children with
cerebral palsy,
damaged central nervous system, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorders, aged 0 to 18.
The Centre was supported by UNICEF in 2002 and later by World Vision.
It has 450 immediate beneficiaries including
children, their parents, school and kindergarten teachers, and staff of the pediatric policlinics.

Basic Assistance and Treatment

The Centre provides psycho-social rehabilitation of 30 children aged 3 to 9. The children are prepared for inclusive education, which implies the development and stimulation of their life and pre-academic skills.

The Centre staff, made up of
a neurologist, a psychiatrist,
an occupational therapist,
a physical therapist and,
a speech therapist, together with the correction teachers are engaged in the implementation of comprehensive programmes for the treatment of the children and their integration in schooling.

Inclusive Education

A special programme was implemented to prepare ten schools in Tbilisi and train fifty teachers,parents and schoolchildren for the acceptance of children with disabilities.

From 2003 to 2005, forty children were engaged in inclusive learning.
The children continue studying at the Centre under the guidance of correction teachers allocated by the selected schools for this purpose.

Informal Education/Creative Activities

Creative activities are essential for the rehabilitation of the Resource centre children.

The latter paint, sculpt and make appliques thus expressing themselves.

Therapeutic exercises are done and competitions are held under the guidance of teachers and specialists.

Such activities, as well as various events, are conducted together with healthy children going to the kindergarten housed in the same building.

The children go together on excursions, attend circus and theatre performances, etc.

This contributes to the integration of the Centre children in the micro-social environment, which is vital for their future.

Relations with Families

The Centre is implementing the assistance programme “Parent – the First Teacher of Child”, which aims at rendering
support to 30 children
with disabilities, aged 0 to 3, as well as providing training to parents and the staff of pediatric policlinics.

In 2006, the Centre undertook training of the children (aged 12 to 18) and their parents who benefited from the rehabilitation course implemented by it.
The training programme is designed to assist in overcoming isolation and rendering assistance in the integration in the society. It applies to 30 children and their parents.

In 2005, a group of ten parents of the children with disabilities, undertook the establishment of an association, which is now under registration. The association unites 150 parents, who know and are able to assist their children best of all.

Relations/Cooperation

The resource Centre works actively with governmental bodies, such as the Ministry of Science and Education, the Ministry of Health Care and Labor, Pre- and In-Service Teachers Training Central Institute, the Chair of Corrective Pedagogy and Psychology of the Ilia Chavchavadze State University, which are directly responsible for children and youth with disabilities.

The Centre staff share their experience with the teachers working for regional schools and kindergartens engaged in inclusive education.

Educational training sessions are held in Rustavi, Gori, Marneuli, Tbilisi and Bolnisi to build the awareness and draw public attention to the problem, as well as to mobilize resources for the integration of the children with disabilities in the society.