It is our philosophy that once you have learn something important and relevant, you share the new knowledge with your colleagues. It builds up professional confidence, at the same time colleagues improve their skills and knowledge.

The outcome of the teachers' training program of 2006 was the organization of the Special Educators' Club for the special education teachers and other professionals who work with the children with special educational needs. The primary aim of the Club is to provide its members with professional support in order the education of the children with special needs is organized more efficiently.

The Club took the following first steps in 2006:

• Each member produced an informational poster of her specialized school.
• The members designed the logo of the Club and produced the Club informational leaflet.
• The Club members have organized teachers’ training conferences and the workshops became an ongoing part of the club work since he beginning.
• The Club members organized common activities for the children with special needs and their peers.

Since the first steps the Club members have been active with the regular monthly meetings, during which many topics and relevant cases were discussed as well as special teaching material was developed, including educational games, adapted teaching worksheets, etc. The Club members also held informational visits to Yerevan and regional special and integration schools since 2009 and took part in some education fairs and exhibitions. A number of practical trainings and workshops were organized for the Club members with our local and foreign colleagues.

With an effort of DAA and the Special Educators’ Club members a manual on ADHD was published in 2011 in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia.

The long-term goal of the Club is to become the Association of Special Educators in Armenia. We hope to cooperate with different local and international organizations for the help in its development.

Each year since 1997 DAA has been running summer camps for the patients of Arabkir JMC&ICAH.

At the camps the sick children interact with the healthy children playing fun games and undertaking interesting activities. This is a good opportunity to let our patients build up contact with healthy children, let them have fun, play games and just talk about anything and everything that children do.

There have been different Summer Camp sights during these years: starting from Ayrudzi to Aparan Summer Recreation Resort. Various facilities provide the camp organizers with opportunities for a number of indoor and outdoor activities.

The other part of summer program consists of one-day excursions to various sights of Armenia, especially for those children who are unable to join the camp. During the recent years children visited Aghveran, Ejmiadzin, Tsakhadzor, Arzni, Aparan, Kotayk, Saghmosavank, Khor Virap, etc.

Once more we came to the conclusion that this model (combination of the camp
and excursions) is an ideal one for the patients, as it allows many children to
participate. In total 123 children took part in the one day excursions in 2012 and if the
funding is available, we hope not only to run a similar program each year, but also to
grow the number of children that can participate. It is always heart breaking when you need to tell a chronically or terminally ill children that they are unable to come due to the very limited spaces available.

The only real restriction in the number of children we can help is the availability of funds.