Month: January 2008
Tackling cases of severe disabilities
Isphana Al Khatib, Director of Al Noor Centre says that it takes around Dh35,000 to train a child with special needs.
Tackling cases of severe disabilities
By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: January 10, 2008, 23:32
Dubai: Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs caters to children with severe cases of disability or with multiple disabilities especially to help parents with very low incomes.
The centre offers individualised academic programmes, vocational training, self awareness programme, behaviour modification programmes, physical education and computer training along with work placement and therapy.
Isphana Al Khatib, Director of Al Noor Centre said that it takes around Dh35,000 to train a child with special needs and faced many challenged cases as parents are not aware of early intervention procedures or where to take their children.
Since graduates from most special needs centre do not get an official graduation degree, Al Noor Centre in collaboration with the National Institute of Open Schooling based in India offered 7 of their students the opportunity to register for courses with which the graduate gets an official certificate on the courses completed such as English, word processing, economics, business studies, and home sciences.
“The area of special needs has developed in the country but still we have a long way to go especially on public awareness. We need structured systems to support people with special needs. From a medical point of view, we need more extensive diagnosis and certainly early intervention. Most people with special needs go without care or support in their first five years, which is the most crucial for their physical and mental growth,” she said.
The director of a special needs centre in Abu Dhabi, who wished to remain unnamed, said a number of her students are fit to join regular schools but face limitations and endless procedures from the Education Ministry and Education zone. “The ones that succeed in getting their children into mainstream schools battle passionately to get permission from senior officials and pay a lot of money to hire an assistant teacher with the special needs child to accompany and monitor the pupil,” he said.
Wheelchairs fail to ground 10-year-old pupil’s dreams
Wheelchairs fail to ground 10-year-old pupil’s dreams
By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: January 10, 2008, 23:32
Dubai: Abdullah is a 10-year-old boy born with spina bifida – a neurospinal disease that causes paralysis from waist down.
He has been using a wheelchair for years. Other than his physical disadvantage Abdullah has no other health problems, and is mentally and socially capable and sound.
Yet the ambitious child faces a tremendous challenge daily since society does not cater to the basic needs of people with special needs. Abdullah’s parents worry every year about his schooling.
Last year he was forced to leave a school because of his physical disability and missed the first three weeks of the academic year. Most schools in the UAE do not have ramps or are inaccessible for people with special needs.
Fatima, his sister, is frustrated by the education system and believes there should be a department or authority willing to cater and support children with special needs.
“The Ministry of Education couldn’t do anything about the previous school or help direct me to a school accessible for people using wheelchairs,” she said.
In his previous school, Abdullah was enrolled in grade 4 with the hope of progressing to grade 5 in the same establishment despite the fact it is on the second floor.
Now Abdullah is in a different private school after visiting 15 schools and contacting over 25 schools to find one that is willing to enrol him and has the necessary facilities. Although he likes his new school and is well-adjusted, he still faces the same challenge of having the upper level classes on the second floor along with the laboratories.
Teenager wins right to join class
By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: January 10, 2008, 23:32
Dubai: Thirteen-year-old Abu Bakr Shaikh Al Alawi recently joined a public school after his parents battled fiercely for over four years to convince the authorities that he is fit to be in a mainstream school.
“My son is very talented. He memorised the Quran and won a lot of prizes and passed his exams set by the Ministry of Education. So I questioned myself: why can’t he be enrolled in a regular school?” asked his Emirati father.
The ministry agreed to integrate Abu Bakr, a child with autism, on condition that a special tutor monitors his progress in school and at home, said his father.
He said he finally found a teacher in Saudi Arabia. “Even though it is the duty of the ministry to cater to the needs of my son I had to find him a teacher for him to get accepted into a regular school,” said the father.
Abu Bakr is the first child with autism to be fully integrated into a regular school. “Abu Bakr is a very good child and deserves to have the same opportunities as the rest of the students,” said Amal, Abu Bakr’s older sister. Her brother had to go through unnecessary procedures such as repeating the same curriculum as he moved between many schools to prove he is capable of being a “normal student in a regular school”.
His teacher, Mustafa Mahmoud, at the Abu Dhabi Autism Centre praised the efforts of parents.
First UAE student to learn Mandarin graduates
First UAE student to learn Mandarin graduates
WAM Published: January 10, 2008, 17:59
Beijing: The first UAE student to study Mandarin language graduated here on Thursday.
In a ceremony organised by the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), Hassan Hussain Zafer was awarded a Bachelor’s degree in Mandarin, becoming the first UAE national to study the Chinese language.
BLCU is the only institution in China which teaches Chinese language and culture to foreign students, according to the BLCU website. The graduation ceremony was attended by UAE Ambassador Mohammad Rashid Al Boot, BLCU President and faculty members.
Heavy showers forecast in UAE
Heavy showers forecast in UAE
By Mahmood Saberi, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Last updated: January 11, 2008, 17:03
Dubai: It will be dark, overcast and wet over the weekend with heavy thundershowers in the northern parts of the emirates, according to the Dubai Met office.
An intense low pressure is moving rapidly towards the emirates already drenching Doha, Qatar, Bahrain and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and the heavy showers will hit UAE on Monday and Tuesday, Dr. S.K. Gupta, duty forecaster, said.
He expects the rainfall will exceed the maximum this time of the year and will reach 16.5 mm.
Strong winds will whip up six to eight foot waves offshore. “A marine warning will be out,” said the forecaster. The winds will whip up a dust haze initially but it will not affect flights, he said.
The usual bright sunny days will return only on Wednesday. The low pressure will dissipate the cold and nights will not be as freezing.
“The daytime temperature will rise to 24 degrees Celsius and the minimum will go up to 16 to 17 degrees,” according to the forecaster.
The temperature had dropped to a minimum 8 degrees Celsius at some places Like Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, which recently experienced hailstorms. “The cloud cover will lift the temperatures higher,” said the forecaster.
The low pressure will move on to Oman and beyond from Wednesday onwards.
Prolong your life by 14 years
Prolong your life by 14 years
9 Jan 2008, 0003 hrs IST,REUTERS
LONDON: People who drink moderately, exercise, quit smoking and eat five servings of fruit and vegetables each day live on average 14 years longer than people who adopt none of these behaviours, researchers said on Tuesday.
Overwhelming evidence has shown that these things contribute to healthier and longer lives, but the new study actually quantified their combined impact, the British team said.
“These results may provide further support for the idea that even small differences in lifestyle may make a big difference to health in the population and encourage behavior change,” the researchers told.
Between 1993 and 1997 the researchers questioned 20,000 healthy British men and women about their lifestyles. They also tested every participant’s blood to measure vitamin C intake, an indicator of how much fruit and vegetables people ate. Then they assigned the participants – aged 45-79 – a score of between 0 and 4, giving one point for each of the healthy behaviours.
After allowing for age and other factors that could affect the likelihood of dying, the researchers determined people with a score of 0 were four times as likely to have died, particularly from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers, who tracked deaths among the participants until 2006, also said a person with a health score of 0 had the same risk of dying as someone with a health score of 4 who was 14 years older.
The lifestyle change with the biggest benefit was giving up smoking, which led to an 80% improvement in health, the study found. This was followed by eating fruits and vegetables.
Moderate drinking and keeping active brought the same benefits, Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues at the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council said.
“Armed with this information, public-health officials should now be in a better position to encourage behaviour changes likely to improve the health of middle-aged and older people,” the researchers wrote.
Detect breast cancer at home
Detect breast cancer at home
11 Jan 2008, 1541 hrs IST,PTI
LONDON: A wonderful gift to the women of the world could soon be unveiled with researchers envisaging a technology to detect breast cancer as easily as a home pregnancy test.
Researcher Dr Charles Streckfus (CORR) said it could prove invaluable in picking up the disease in its earliest stages, when it is easiest to treat. Used during routine dental check-ups, it could spot cases of the disease which could otherwise go unnoticed until too late.
“This could be something women could use in between mammograms and if something looks suspicious, they could jump on it,” Dr Streckfus said, adding “If you had this particular test side by side with mammography, it will take the worry out for women.”
By analysing the saliva of 30 women, a third of whom had breast cancer, the researchers from University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston identified 49 proteins whose levels change depending on a women’s breast health.
The patterns of protein levels make it possible to distinguish between healthy women and those with breast tumours. Benign and malignant tumours can also be separated, the journal Cancer Investigation reports.
The test, which is around five years away from the market, would use antibodies to detect the proteins, and provide a near-instant result, cutting out the need for time-consuming lab work.
“As well as accepting invitations to regular breast screening, it is vital that women of any age are breast aware throughout their life, by being familiar with how their breasts normally look and feel so that any changes can be picked up quickly and reported to their doctor without delay,” Antonia Dean of the Breast Cancer Care was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail of Britain.
Amrita Superstar Caravan in Dubai
Excerpts of the Amrita Super Star Caravan show held at Al Nasr Leisureland Dubai on 28th December 2007.
Enjoy the performance of our young talents.
more to come soon…………
Dance your way to a healthy living
Excerpts of a lively stage performance by Aneesh Rahman, Anjali, and Prashant at the Amrita Super Star Caravan show held at Al Nasr Leisureland in Duabi on 28th December 2007.
Enjoy watching it.
Dubai is world’s fastest-growing airport
Dubai is world’s fastest-growing airport
Staff Report GULF NEWS Published: January 10, 2008, 00:55
Dubai: Dubai International (DI), the largest aviation hub of the Middle East, was the world’s fastest growing airport in 2007 in terms of international passenger throughput with a growth of 19.31 per cent.
The airport handled a total of 34.34 million passengers, well over the projected 33 million for the year, compared to 28.78 million in 2006.
Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) and chairman of Dubai Airports, said passenger throughput at Dubai International is expected to reach 40 million in 2008.
The high growth rate means that for the sixth consecutive year, Dubai International maintained an average growth rate of over 15 per cent.
In 2007, August was the busiest month for the airport in terms of passenger figures with 3.28 million passengers, while October recorded the highest growth rate at 29.92 per cent.
For the first time, monthly passenger throughput crossed the three million mark thrice during the year, while it was above 2.5 million for each of the remaining nine months. The average passenger movement per day at is 95,000.
The overall growth in 2007 resulted in increased aircraft movement, registering an increase of 9.81 per cent. The airport handled 260,530 movements in 2007 as against 237,258 in 2006.
Shaikh Ahmad said, “Dubai International’s growth is a reflection of Dubai’s robust economy, and its rising popularity as an international commercial and tourism hub. It is also a clear sign of our intent and vision for the future of the aviation sector in Dubai.”
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