Training for Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Samoa
15th July 2008
Country: Samoa
Organisation: Loto Taumafai Society
Community workers need training so that they can provide families with useful and flexible support to suit their needs. The Loto Taumafai Early Intervention Programme (LTEIP) in Samoa has developed a comprehensive training programme for CBR workers. This involves specialised training, but community workers need not be professionals.
- Who are they?
- What is their role?
- How they work?
Community based workers are trained to provide information on Deafness; improving communication skills; increasing family and community awareness of deaf children’s needs; and supporting school attendance.
Volunteer advisors from Australia and USA have provided specialist training in relation to: sign language linguistics; visual teaching techniques; literacy and numeracy strategies; child development; basic speech therapy; interpreter ethics; and the importance of story telling. The advisors also provided train
ing on broad concepts including: family support, abuse, neglect, types of disability, mental illness, and stress management.
Deaf field workers support the entire team with sign language vocabulary development.
Samoa Family Health provided an intensive six day sexuality training course for LTEIP field workers.
The Samoan Red Cross has provided training for all staff in first aid.
An NGO which focuses on family violence, Mapusaga O Aiga, has delivered training on human rights. The NGO has also provided support in relation to a deaf child who is the victim of family violence.
All LTEIP staff have received training in relation to the Deaf project. There is now a large base of people who are confident in using sign language.
The team has learnt:
to be resourceful and creative with limited resources;
to be flexible when working with children with different communication levels;
different activities and methods of teaching sign language according to age;
teaching skills and gained confidence when teaching sign language to the adult classes;
to use community contacts in an attempt to locate deaf children in the villages.
Achievements of SGP in Samoa
At least 40 deaf children from Samoa benefits from the Empowerment Programme
