Calicut University book on parenting kids with disabilities translated into foreign languages

‘Life in the Times of COVID-19: A Guide for Parents of Children with Disabilities’, a 10-page booklet launched by UNESCO and the University of Calicut in Kerala has gone global. The booklet has guidelines for parents and caregivers of children with disabilities.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown up many challenges for parents the world over. This is especially so for parents and caregivers of children with disabilities.

To ease and help parents cope with these challenges, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) New Delhi and the Community-based Disability Management and Rehabilitation Programme (CDMRP), University of Calicut launched a booklet called Life in the Times of COVID-19: A Guide for Parents of Children with Disabilities.

That booklet has now gone global.

Booklet available in 4 foreign languages

The booklet has been translated into several foreign languages by UNESCO. These are currently available in Spanish, Russian, Nepali and Spanish including the sign language version. Translation to Arabic and Portuguese is currently underway and the guidelines are also available in UNESCO’s digital library.

The guide explains and illustrates the different aspects that a parent/caregiver must take into account while taking care of children with disabilities. It also addresses the need to maintain the mental health of parents/caregivers as well as their duties and responsibilities.

The 11 sections of the booklet go into various details like children’s cleanliness, exercise routine, food habits, psychological well-being as well as entertainment. The guidelines were initially published in Malayalam by the CDMRP and later released in English in collaboration with UNESCO. Apart from the foreign languages, the booklet has also been published Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

The guide is action-oriented and would help serve all families with special needs in dealing with the extreme crisis of COVID-19. We would like to thank the University of Calicut and the Social Justice Department (Kerala) for their continuous efforts in creating an inclusive approach in raising awareness through the Community Disability Management and Rehabilitation Programme (CDMRP). – Eric Falt, Director, UNESCO New Delhi

Booklet focuses on parents/caregivers too

Such guidelines will help parents and caregivers understand ways to manage the challenges thrown up by the coronavirus pandemic, adds Prof K. Manikandan, UNESCO Chair on Community Based Disability Management and Rehabilitation Studies. “The radical changes and ensuing stress brought about by COVID-19 and the lockdown in the lives of people may also result in different sorts of difficulties among children with disabilities. Hence, their parents and caregivers must know how to manage and guide them during this pandemic”.

Seema Lal, Co-founder of TogetherWeCan, the parent support group, finds the guidelines are user friendly. “It is presented in a very simple manner without the use of any jargons. It highlights the fundamentals of caregiving which should have been followed even during pre-Covid times and have become even more pertinent today during the pandemic”. Seema especially likes the focus on mental health of the caregivers. “This has been long ignored and less talked about as the focus of all therapies have been child-centred. So in that aspect this is so much in tune with Together We Can’s ideologies”.

You can access the English version of the ‘Life in the Times of COVID-19: A Guide for Parents of Children with Disabilities’ here.

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