Disable & Bedridden Kids

Children not able to attend school due to long-term illnesses face complete separation from school and school friends. During 2007, the FMD and Intel have worked together to make possible the provision by Intel of 22 laptop computers equipped with video-conferencing and the virtual-class software Centra, to sick children and youngsters treated at the Bambin Gesù Hospital. The Centra software provides excellent educational facilities that allow sick bed-ridden children to continue ‘attending’ their classes with consequent health and educational benefits.

When a sick child is at home or in hospital, s/he is provided with a laptop computer and a second laptop is provided to her/his school. In this way, the child can continue her/his presence at school, maintaining contacts with schoolmates.

In addition, the Foundation has engaged the company Unidata to provide ADSL connectivity to the student’s homes and schools, of course with the agreement of parents and teachers. This enables the students to connect to school either from home or from hospital. So far, 10 schools and 7 homes have been provided with ADSL connectivity. The remaining schools and homes already had it.

Ten students from different schools –all treated at Bambin Gesù Hospital- are at present benefiting from the virtual class programme. Six of the students are female and 4 male and the ages range from 6 to 20 years old. The participating schools include 4 primary schools, 3 lower secondary schools and 3 upper secondary schools. The schools are:

• I.M.S. "G. Bruno" di Roma
• S.M.S. "Virgilio "- di Lavinio
• 3° C.D. "C.Collodi "- di Lavinio
• I.C. "Via Orrea"- di Cesano
• I.C. "L. Rizzo" plesso Cairoli di Roma
• 34° C.D."M. T. Di Calcutta" di Roma
• I.C. "Parco della Vittoria"- plesso S.M.S. "Giovanni XXIII" di Roma
• S.M.S." G. Da Sangallo"di Roma (Ostia)
• IPSSCT "L. Einaudi" di Roma
• I.P.S. "R. Rossellini" di Roma

The FMD is following the project closely.

First, It has sent a technician who is visiting all schools and homes to teach parents, teachers and children the use of the Centra virtual-class software. This also serves o overcome any technical problem during the first stage of use of the equipment. 

Second, it has run an initial survey among the teachers to have precise knowledge of their experience in the use of assistive video-conferencing technology.