Newsletter No. 9 - EENET News

Website

Our website (www.eenet.org.uk) has grown amazingly over the last few years. In March 2003 we had 153,000 hits per month. By March 2005 this had risen to 291,000. If you have any articles you want to share, then our website is the place to do it! If you are an EENET reader in a Southern country who cannot access the Internet, and you want to know if we have any documents on our website on a specific subject, please write to us.

Readers’ survey

With a previous newsletter we sent a ‘change of address’ form. This form included a question about the inclusive education issues that most interest our readers. Responses included:

school and classroom practice

education systems and policies

gender issues

community-based rehabilitation and inclusive education

language issues

HIV/AIDS

parents and families.

We invite readers to help each other. If you have experiences relating to one or more of these issues, why not write an article. We may be able to publish it in the next newsletter or on our website. If you are not an experienced writer, don’t worry, we can offer you advice and support with the planning and editing of your article. We’re waiting to hear from you!

Funding issues

We are committed to providing access to free information and networking opportunities for education stakeholders in the South. But this costs money. EENET operates on a very small annual budget and we rely entirely on grants and donations. EENET urgently needs funding to ensure our activities (such as this newsletter) continue in 2006 and beyond. If you or your organisation can offer a donation or grant, to fund EENET’s unique and vitally important role in supporting the development of inclusive education practice and policy in the South, please contact us.

Kenya e-group

EENET has launched an email group for people who are living/working in Kenya or who are from Kenya. The group aims to share and discuss documents and ideas relating to education and inclusion in Kenya. If you would like to join this e-group, please contact EENET for more information.

Events

ISEC

We will be involved in two symposiums at the international Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, 1-4 August 2005. One symposium will look at ‘promoting international dialogue on inclusive education’. The other focuses on ‘using visual images to make sense of inclusive education’. If you plan to attend the congress then we look forward to seeing you at these symposiums! Our presentations and other documents relating to these topics will be available from EENET after the event.

ICED

EENET has been working closely with the International Deaf Children’s Society, Viataal International and Christoffel Blinden Mission in preparation for the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED), Maastricht, The Netherlands, 17-20 July 2005. Pre-congress activities have been organised to promote collaboration between international NGOs supporting work with deaf children, and networking between Southern countries. Congress information is available from: www.iced2005.org. The final report about this networking event will be available from www.idcs.info, or contact EENET.

23/01/2006