Georgie: Michaelschule
Apothecary garden and sensory garden for people with disabilities
This school year, the Michael School Tbilisi would like to set up an apothecary garden and a sensory garden – as a developmental and learning environment for young people, children and adolescents with special needs. Here they can grow herbs and medicinal plants and learn garden work, collect, dry plants and make medicinal gatherings and teas.
In the sensory garden the children and adolescents are surrounded with a variety of scents, colours, shades, sounds and textures of plants. Here they activate their vital senses of sight, hearing, embracing, touch and taste. The garden will also be used as a place for therapy.
In order to buy all the necessary materials for the garden, the school needs financial support. Among other things, wood for wooden boxes with plants in them and materials for a barefoot path, such as pebbles, bark, and sand, need to be purchased. They also want to buy seeds, seedlings and good soil. In total, the implementation of the project will cost about 5,000 euros.
About the project:
The Centre of Free Pedagogy started its work in 1991. After seeing the need for curative education, of which in Georgia there was none at the time, the Center founded a curative-pedagogical school for children with special needs in 1994. They named the school after Archangel Michael and is to this day known globally as Michaelschule Tbilisi. The school started with only four classes and has grown over the years. Today there are 9 classes and over 50 pupils.
Besides the Michaelschule the Centre for Liberal Education has several initiatives - the curative-pedagogical kindergarten "Mzeshina" for children with special needs, a Waldorf kindergarten, a day centre for children and young adults, several workshops and a psychological-educational diagnostic centre which offers individual therapy for children. All in all, there are more than 90 children and young adults and 34 employees.
Amongst Center’s workshops are sawing workshop, bookbinding workshop, educational kitchen and bakery and educational café, where our young adults are learning how to work in a café, receive guests, orders, prepare coffee and tea, and deal with money. The skills that they will learn here will give them opportunity to start work and have independence in their future.
What else is the money needed for?
Continuing of the program of preparation for independent life and learning of professions, the School decided to set up the apothecary garden and the sensory garden. This will be used as a development and learning environment for young people, children and adolescents with special needs. The main purpose of the sensory garden is therapy.
Besides learning how to grow, harvest and use the plants, the students can put the dried medicinal plants from the garden into small cloth bags sewn by young people in the sewing workshop. These small bags of herbs, herbal mixtures and teas are then sold in a small shop in the summer café to parents and guests of the school.
In order to realise this project, the Michael School still needs financial resources. Your donations will help the school to buy all the necessary materials for the garden.
Despite the difficult financial situation in the country, the teachers continue their work with an unbroken spirit for a better future and prove to be a united and strong team with irrevocable confidence. In order to be able to continue the valuable work for people with disabilities in the future, the Michael School is grateful for every donation.
