The Kazakh project Tamshylar by Gulbanu Omirbekova, aimed at supporting children with special developmental needs, took second place in the Heart's Calling category of the international Eurasia award. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The project's history began with Gulbanu Omirbekova's personal experience. As the mother of a child with autism, she sought ways to provide the necessary help to her own child, and later built a support system for other families in this area.
Over 13 years, the Tamshylar project has grown into a comprehensive system of assistance for children with special developmental needs. During this period, 4,792 children received help, and more than 115,200 hours of therapy were conducted. In addition, 250 trainings were organized for specialists.
The project is based on an author's methodology, approaches of applied behavior analysis (ABA), as well as the VB-MAPP and ABLLS-R assessment tools.
Within the project, children from Kazakhstan as well as Kyrgyzstan, Russia and the United States received assistance. Tamshylar is now developing inclusive classrooms and aims to expand the scope of its services. To this end, preparations are underway to launch the TamshylarHub digital platform. The platform will allow the project to expand its work and systematize the support provided to children.
The international Eurasia award is designed to recognize projects that have contributed to the development of international cooperation, the preservation of traditional values and the strengthening of cultural ties. This year's award ceremony was attended by representatives of 73 countries. The total prize fund of the award amounts to 17 million rubles.