PORTAGE IN ESTONIA

The British Embassy in Tallinn working with the Bridge Child Care Development Service in London supported a programme of Portage related activities in Estonia in October this year. Remika Jeyarajah Dent Chief Executive at the Bridge, Mollie White and Runi Sayeed, both experienced Portage practitioners and Early Childhood Consultants, formed the visiting team. Significant changes in legislation carried out since Estonian Independence in 1991 have created a climate supporting new initiatives relating to the care and education of children with learning difficulties. The British Embassy keen to support these initiatives provided funding: first for the delivery of a Portage Workshop in Narva on the Russian border and second a series of meetings in Tallinn. Between organisations uniting parents of children with learning difficulties set up by Ena Tomberg President of the Estonian Union for Child Welfare.

Interest in the Portage Model as a vehicle for establishing working partnerships between all those concerned with the health care and education of the child was common to all the meetings held. The focus on the practicalities of family life as the context for individualised programmes of support was of particular interest to parents. Parents were again strongly represented alongside a diversity of professionals at the workshop in Narva. The venue was a newly established Day Centre catering for school age children with special needs. All participants discussed the implications of the individualised approach to learning with enthusiasm. There was interest in providing support from the Day Centre for children below school age who currently receive little direct support. Hopes for a pilot project emerging from discussions in Narva are high carrying with them the support of the relevant agencies and the potential to establish parallel projects in the future at other sites in Estonia.