Through the SHE-Core Initiative, we invited two facilitators from Care Society in Male’ to hold sessions on disability awareness and recognition in early childhood. The sessions took place over two nights, the 11^th and 12^th of April, at Nooranee Pre-School on Naifaru, and were attended by forty-one local parents and pre-school teachers.

The first evening’s workshop introduced the participants to the ideas in the UN Convention on the Right of Persons with Disability, and the national official policies under the Disability Act of Maldives. The next day’s workshop began in the afternoon, and was concerned with recognizing and identifying behaviors in children that could be symptomatic of disabilities, understanding their terminologies, and pinpointing the different kinds of disabilities with methods on how to work with them. In the evening session, the facilitators provided the participants information on the different services available in Maldives for People With Disabilities (PWDs).

A participant evaluation was conducted that same evening and its results showed that teachers and parents alike recognized the need for more awareness sessions, particularly for those families that are affected by disabilities. The teachers also requested additional training programs to better equip themselves with techniques necessary to work with children with disabilities.

Naifaru Juvenile would like to thank the facilitators and participants for their valuable feedback.