Al Ma’een  Center has been created in 2011 to address the specific problems of people with special needs and their families, and to offer them an exhaustive support including the psychological habilitation counselling, and the social and physical care services listed hereafter:

-          Habilitation programs destined to the people with mental, hearing, visual and body difficulties

-          Help and rehabilitation care for people afflicted with learning difficulties

-          Social, leisure physical and learning services provided through dedicated clubs

-          Job search help service provided to the special needs beneficiaries graduated from the Institution Centers

Al Ma’een  Center is confident that the special needs people cause far from being limited to such people, is crucial for the whole of our society. Furthermore, Al Ma’een  believes that it is an absolute necessity to answer to the deficient people claims and to stop all segregation forms against them as stated in the international conventions.

The Center Departments:

1. The Treatment Departments

2. The Social Club

3. The Sports Hall

4. The IT Laboratory

5. The Meeting and Conference Room

6. The Library

7. The Centre graduates employment office for the people who have terminated their training within the Institutions centers

 

1.    The care departments:

The care departments (psychological, psycho-motor, speech and oral expression, functional, physiological and early intervention) are all fitted out with the best amenities (furniture, facilities and educational toys) in order to provide exhaustive care and respond to the needs of the Institutions beneficiaries as well as people attending external schools or specialised establishments.

The functional care unit:

This unit has been conceived to accommodate people with physical, sensory, motor, mental, intellectual, psychological and social impairments, with a view to provide habilitation or rehabilitation of their capacities and natural abilities and guarantee a better functional and behavioural adjustment.

The functional treatment main objective is to develop the personal, social, professional self-sufficiency and to promote social integration.

The psycho-motor care unit:

This unit accommodates beneficiaries with learning special needs and provides them with a treatment to invigorate their communication abilities with their surroundings, improve their visual, concentration and oral capacities, as well as their visuomotor coordination, and stress and aggressive or extreme behavioral control.

The natural or physiological care unit:

This care consists in upgrading the physiological capacities through exercises specially designed to soften the muscular system and improve the blood flow, in order to reduce stress and ensure overall well-being.

The physiological treatment incorporates exercises aiming at the following results:

-          Decrease of the body’s stiffening and enhancement of the muscular potential and coordination

-          Improvement of the balance between the sitting and the standing positions and wheelchair use training

-          Pain and inflammation control, blood flow enhancement and muscular strength reinforcement

The physiological care unit includes the following services:

a.       The motor care service

b.      The electrical care service

The motor care service:

This service incorporates special technical amenities and material to strengthen the muscles, particularly the lower and upper limbs, and improve walking.

The electric care service includes four treatments:

·         Ultrasound treatment

·         Electric treatment

·         Ultraviolet treatment

·         Short waves treatment

The psychological care department:

This department is dedicated to the treatment of psychological problems resulting from day-to-day routine, family, schooling or academic life difficulties.

The psychological care department objectives:

                                 i.            To restore everyday life balance

                               ii.            To free the person from his/her psychological tensions

                              iii.            To reduce anxiety and distress

                             iv.            To provide advise and support

                               v.            To treat psycho-pathological cases

                             vi.            To improve overall behaviour and foster the acquisition of useful social abilities and conduct

                            vii.            To assess the intellectual capacities in order to identify individual prospects

The early intervention unit:

Provides educational, medical and preventative help to children up to 6 years old with special needs, including:

1)      Support within the centres that host the child and his/her family

2)      Home support including counselling and guidance of the family to help it fulfill its responsibilities and accept the child as he/she is, and recommend special care when necessary

 

2.    The social clubs:

«Mo’assassat Al-Bayan» for hearing-impaired and «Al Ma’een » for visually impaired clubs provide a social meeting and a cultural and sports space to the people afflicted with difficulties and their families, whether living in Beirut or elsewhere. A space where they are welcomed to practice their favourite hobbies and leisure activities.

These activities include music, cultural performances, sports and household tasks. A musical company is in the process of being set up.

«Al Bayan» club for the hearing impaired features since two years a football team comprising the Centre’s beneficiaries.

 

3.    The sports hall:

This hall is fitted with the most up-to-date dedicated facilities for physical and muscular strength improvement activities, as well as a ping-pong and a football tables.

 

4.    The IT laboratory:

The IT laboratory is equipped with special technological programs specially designed for the visually impaired and offers training programs in the computer science field.

Scanners and Braille printers are to be provided shortly.

 

5.    The meeting and conference room:

This hall is equiped with up-to-date screens and groundbreaking techniques in order to host meetings, conferences and workshops on the theme of special needs. It also welcomes exhibitions of dedicated material and equipments as well as national, regional and international conferences.

 

6.    The library:

The library hosts all the Institutions beneficiaries with special needs, as well as school children and university students registered in external specialised institutions who are visually impaired or with physical special needs. It also welcomes university students pursuing researches on special needs people.

The library is provided with up-to-date facilities allowing school programs recording, conferences, litterary and scientific presentations specially designed for the beneficiaries, and notably the visually impaired.

 

7.    The Centre graduates employment office :

The employment office looks for jobs that are suitable to people with special needs who have graduated from the Institutions training programs, and monitors the psychological and professional evolution of the trainees once they are in office.

Al Ma’een  Centre has managed successfully to support, train and prepare for their prospective jobs a large number of people with special needs, allowing them to integrate a wide range of activities such as management, computer science, photo, printing, and various artistic fields such as interior design and bookbinding, carpentry, chocolate making and horticulture..