Open Door Centre celebrates ten years of giving hope
RECENTLY, the National Vocational Training Centre for persons with Disabilities, better known as the Open Door Centre and located in the Ministry of Health compound at ‘B’ Field, Sophia, celebrated ten years of offering hope, and an opportunity to satisfy one of the fundamental rights of all human beings: The opportunity to access education and skills training.
The Guyana Chronicle visited the centre recently and met administrator Mr. Arthur Lewis, who was happy to tell us about the work of the institution, at which 32 persons are currently enrolled.

Background

The Open Door Centre was established in 2000 through a project promoted by the Italian NGO, Associazione Italiana Amici de Raoul Follerau (AIFO), and co-financed by the European Union. The project was developed by the Ministry of Health here under the agency’s rehabilitations services.
In May 2001, the Centre opened its doors to persons with the following disabilities: Speech, Hearing, Physical (including trainees in wheel chairs), Learning, Visual, Epilepsy and other disabilities affecting endurance or general health.

The Mission
The Centre is committed to offering vocational training to youths and adults with disabilities with the age range 17-45 years, in scientific, technical, and commercial fields in order to give them an opportunity to develop their abilities and skills, so as to make it possible for them to earn a living through productive work.
Lewis said that at the Centre, persons are given opportunities they would never have in the formal school system. To date, he said, only three of the enrolled students have ever had any secondary school experience. He said that before any staff comes onboard, the Centre does its best to ascertain that they do not come with any mental blocks and that they are committed.
“Teachers function not only as teachers but as counsellors. We tell them you have to be ready; put yourself in that persons place,” he said, adding that because classes are small (below 10 persons), instructors have no excuse not to pay individual attention to each child.
School hours are 09:00 – 15:00h Mondays to Fridays.

Objectives
Rehabilitation services, a vertical programme in the Ministry of Health,  has for decades placed great emphasis on providing appropriate medical rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities, a large percentage of whom are children and young adults with movement, hearing, speech and learning impairments and disabilities. The services provided encompass Physical, Occupational, Speech therapy and Audiology services.
AIFO, which organisation has been working in the field of disability for several years in some 50 nations worldwide through international cooperation with governmental and non-governmental local institutions, had planned the start-up of a National Vocational Training Centre for persons with disabilities.
The need for establishing a National Vocational Training Centre for persons with disabilities was strongly highlighted during the phase of planning and formulation of the overall project. It was noted that there was a general shortage of resources and facilities for persons with disabilities in the capital, Georgetown, and Guyana in general.
According to a report provided by the Centre in reference to the education services for persons with disabilities, Guyana has only one special school, which is based in Georgetown and serves the need of hearing-impaired and intellectually impaired children. The report goes on to say that the City also has a centre for physically handicapped children, along with a unit for visually impaired children attached to a regular school.
There was also at the time, as outlined in the report, two very small units serving disabled children in two rural towns, and a residential home that serves 20 children and young adults. The report however points out that as far as vocational rehabilitation services are concerned, there are no vocational training services for the disadvantaged categories in Guyana.
This gap, the report says, frustrates the joint efforts of all the institutes working in the field of disability (Rehabilitation Centres, Special schools, NGOs etc) since clients of those institutions, once they become adult and have been rehabilitated in some field, do not have available to them any facility or service that enables them to be trained professionally so that they can obtain the necessary skills to gain employment.
To find a job placement is too hard a challenge for most persons with disabilities, as they lack any educational background and vocational training. As a consequence, they must live at home with their parents, since they don’t have any income that enables them to achieve personal independence and self sustainability.
Thus the Centre places great emphasis on employment, by not only providing training but securing employment as well for the trainees in the form of job placement in enterprise or self employment. The Centre has established contacts with the Private Sector, employee organizations and the trade unions in order to promote the creation of a network that ensures that persons with disabilities, once they are adequately trained, may access real opportunities for employment.

The Programme
For the first two years, the programme was one of only a year’s duration, which included four weeks of work attachment. After an evaluation at the end of the second year, the programme was revised in keeping with the recommendations by the Guyana Technical and Vocation Education Training Programme (TVET). The duration of the programme is now two years, inclusive of a twelve-week work attachment.
The Centre currently employs six lecturers who specialise in four vocational skills areas: Information Technology- An introductory computer course designed to give trainees a working knowledge of personal computer, software concepts, MS Word, MS Excel, Access, Power Point, Introduction to the Internet and Desktop Publishing and Hardware; Electronics and Electronic Installation – Electronics; A programme designed with a focus on domestic appliances to provide the trainees with practical competencies and attitudes which are foundational requirements for entry in the workplace and Installation a course with a focus on domestic and industrial installation.
The other two areas are Garment Construction, which exposes the trainees to skills in dressmaking and tailoring, soft toys and cushion making, fabric painting, floral arrangement, and tie-dyeing; and Carpentry and Joinery, a course that is designed with a focus on joinery and enables the trainees to understand and apply skills in developing and maintaining good work attitudes and the appreciation for good designs in furniture and other wooden items.
At the time of our visit, the students were all out on work attachment at the Guyana Power and Light Inc, Electric and Electronics System Centre, All Electrical and Rewinding Establishment, the Guyana Defence Force, Melsha’s Furniture Store, the Guyana Public Hospital Corporation, the Palms, the Guyana Community Based Rehabilitation Programme, the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre, the National Commission on Disabilities and the Ministry of Health.
In October, the Centre will be hosting its 6th graduation ceremony.

The Centre can be contacted at 219-2738 and 219-2753, or by email at opendoors@guyana.net.gy.