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| 2017 Care for Exceptional Children Event Held on Children’s Day |
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On the morning of June 1, the China Welfare Institute Children’s Palace witnessed the Children’s Day gala Rendezvous on the Rainbow, part of a social program that promotes care for exceptional children. Dong Yunhu, Member of the Standing Committee and Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Shanghai Committee, Xu Zezhou, , Vice Director of the Municipal People’s Congress, Li Yiping，Vice Chairman of the Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference and other officials attended the event and launched the Wish of Starfish charity program aimed to promote care for the cognitively compromised children in Shanghai.
The Wish of Starfish program, consisting of art experience and intervention research projects targeted at children suffering cognitive disorder aged from 4 to 16, is the first of its kind in China and a bold pioneering trial worldwide. It proceeds by means of one-on-one artistic enlightenment through immersion in theatric plays.
By introducing the world’s best plays for exceptional children and workshops, providing master courses, as well as localized creation of specific plays, the 3-year program adds viable ideas and methods to immersive art experience for exceptional children and special education. It integrates all voluntary contributing factors in the society to foster a caring environment saturated with love, encouragement, inclusiveness and equity for the cognitively disordered kids, embodying the humanistic care of Shanghai, the international metropolis at the heart of the socialist modernization drive.
During the gala, visually impaired, mentally handicapped and autistic children performers all put on fascinating shows. Leading officials from the municipal government presented Children’s Day gifts to the children’s families to express wishes for them to grow up healthily and happily. After the performance, 500 families of exceptional children spent a Silk Road of the Kids’ Dreams park tour together.
Three-year action plan of the Wish of Starfish program
1. Play Introduction：
• Introducing 2 or 3 plays created specifically for the program’s target group on an annual basis and staging them for 2 or 3 weeks；
• Inviting special education teachers, theatric professionals, medical practitioners, volunteers and other relevant professionals to observe the plays.
2. Hosting master courses and sharing sessions：
• Inviting artistic directors of the introduced plays to give master training sessions, and hosting lectures and other sharing activities；
3. Play Localization：
• Recruiting special education teachers, artists and theatric professionals in China who are willing to make commitment to helping exceptional children so as to localize 1 or 2 plays of a professional theatrical troupe with the instruction of the troupe；
• Working with the workshop to stage tours in schools for the mentally retarded and local communities in the districts of Shanghai after play localization。
4. Resource integration：
• Inviting healthcare experts to produce professional investigations and analyses through monitoring the target group；
• Calling charitable businesses and organizations to give more attention and support to the program.
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