Supporting Special Needs
Greenfield College pays special attention to those with special needs. We celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities through focused activities designed to raise empathy such as:
Preparing movies and songs to raise empathy. The first -place winning video clip"Equal in Rights" was presented at the English Language Olympics in Amman, Jordan. This touching video clip shows the work of GFC students with orphans and special needs students at our neighboring school – Dar Al Aytam Tanmiyeh Fikriye, as well as marginalized youth and refugees at Amel Association.
Holding annual awareness days to build tolerance and empathy in our school community. Our neighboring school – Dar Al Aytam Tanmiyeh Fikriye is a community partner and GFC students visit weekly during their Community Service club hour.
Visiting members of the Lebanese National Basketball teams came to play wheelchair basketball with a group of special needs athletes. Our students created banners and cheered them on after awareness activities.
Students celebrated the first 20 minutes of the “Special Needs Day” blindfolded and deaf to build empathy with those that deal with this on a daily basis.
STEAM classes with our special needs neighbors – students attended classes in our integrated science, technology, engineering, arts, math classes and did experiments and hands-on activities with our students and teachers.
Games and gifts day – students collected gifts for our special needs neighbors and created games and activities for them to enjoy. They spent the day at Greenfield rotating through labs and activity centers.
Summer enjoyment program Tanmiyeh Fikriyeh– IB students designed STEM activities for weekly visits throughout the summer. They worked with a group of students of various ages and different special needs.
Collaboration With and Support of NGOs
SOS Village
Visit and gift distribution – IB students visited SOS Village after preparing gift packages of school supplies. Our STEAM stories are designed around two fictional characters from SOS Village who go on scientific adventures. Students are encouraged to reflect on the different perspective of children who live in foster homes.
Baitna
Baitna is an association for special needs adults. It is a home for approximately 15 adults who live their fulltime and are cared for by caretakers living onsite with them. It has the feel of a home, not an institution. Greenfield students visited and raised money for this NGO, in addition to baking activities and joining them for an Easter celebration.
SAID
SAID is a colorectal awareness NGO started by a woman who was directly impacted by this highly preventable cancer. Students support SAID yearly in the Beirut Marathon. IB students visited several municipalities with SAID to raise awareness. Additionally, they created the video Ana Said to encourage people to support SAID in the marathon.
A special documentary to support SAID foundation was also prepared by GFC and won a national award at LAU. You can watch the documentary at the link:
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=ana%20said&epa=SEARCH_BOX
Amel Association
Amel is an organization that helps marginalized youth such as Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Greenfield students visited weekly to help with homework and enhance English language building.
Habitat for Humanity
Students met with the Regional Director of the Middle East of the NGO, Habitat for Humanity to discuss ways of introducing students to the work of this organization. Students developed the plan of the ‘Hallway for Humanity’ in order to raise money and to inform others about the need for suitable housing for all. They will sell cardboard bricks to build a hallway display with the ‘donor’s’ name on it.
They also wrote a journalism article about the NGO and won second place at LAU Arts and Science Journalism competition. The article has been submitted to the Generation Z column of An Nahar Newspaper.
Celebrating Human Rights
Greenfield College always supported human rights by working with NGOs and human rights establishments, and by developing our own projects. Some examples include:
Women’s Rights
Equality and gender rights are represented in the Debate Curriculum. A special documentary that won the first award at the KIDSPROOF national competition aimed at fighting the selling of the images of women in media.
Right for Proper Education
Students prepared an engaging video (roots of change) that calls for the right of students to receive proper education. This documentary won an international prize at ELO competition in Jordan.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
ROOTS OF CHANGE
Elderly Rights
A touching movie entitled: إلى أبنائي الأحباءthat calls for the rights of the elderly was also prepared by GFC students
GFC students pay visits to the elderly homes to offer them gifts and show compassion.