Our Mission:
Empowering educational and health professionals to meet the needs people with disabilities by means of sharing practice.
MAITS’ mission is to create a network of individuals and organisations in the UK that have training and teaching expertise in helping people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities. At the same time, they hope to create a network of SEN and disability organisations in the developing world that do not have access to the latest teaching methods and research and are looking for help and guidance for their teachers, therapists and support staff. MAITS then connects the two networks and facilitates volunteers from the UK network to visit organisations in the developing world for a period of time to help bring them up to date with the latest teaching methods and research.
We are looking to target a range of special educational needs and disabilities, including Autism, Global Development Delay and Multi-Sensory Impairment. We have already worked with volunteers in the following areas:
- General Special Educational Needs
- Educational Psychology
- Music, Art and Drama Therapy
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Physiotherapy
- Occupational Therapy
Our volunteers have helped local organisations to develop and extend their knowledge and understanding of special educational needs through planning and presenting a range of talks and short courses on different SEN topics as well as working with the teachers and therapists on a more hands on basis. Recent topics and courses have included - An Introduction to Autism, Working with Children with Learning Difficulties, Music Therapy, Communication Needs and Speech and Language Difficulties.
As a result of the success of these projects already begun in Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Uganda, Cambodia and Pakistan there are plans to extend our training and support to other organisations in the developing world. Our target countries include Nigeria and Nepal.
Future Goals:
MAITS’ priorities are to continue to build up its UK and global networks and to continue to send specialist volunteers overseas. It hopes to create long standing and fruitful relationships with organisations both in the UK and in the developing world. Its long term goal is also to create an alumni of volunteers and a therefore specialist knowledge pool and to build up an interactive website where all members of the global network can share their knowledge and experiences.
Initially MAITS concentrated on helping children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, however we have now expanded this to helping people of all ages. We also hope to eventually cover all physical and mental disabilities in the sector.
MAITS is currently working on plans to build and run a centre for special educational needs and disability in Cape Town, South Africa. The centre will be in a prestigious new buiding where people with special needs arising from a physical or educational disability can be identified, assessed and entered into a programme of specialist support for their personal development and learning. The centre will work in collaboration with UK volunteers sent by MAITS to organise and train staff who are less experienced than themselves. We hope that this centre will be a blueprint for many more across the developing world.
We are registered UK charity no 1126268.
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