YP

Program Summary

Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center (SMRC) in Palestine is an undertaking of the worldwide Moravian Church which contributes to ensure a dignified life for persons with intellectual disability through providing rehabilitation, training services, inclusion, awareness raising and social mobilization based on love, dignity, justice and equality. 

In addition to the inclusive kindergarten, school and vocational training programs, SMRC has an outreach Community Work program that started in 1997. The Christoffel Blind Mission, (CBM) – Germany since 2012, who is a lead partner in introducing concepts of inclusion, has funded the Community Work program disability inclusive development, child safeguarding, livelihood, rights-based approach, development goals and many other global concepts related to persons with disability and their rights.

The Community Work Program provides rehabilitation services to 110 persons with intellectual disability (49 males and 61 females) in 11 villages and one refugee camp. It aims to develop the capacity of persons with intellectual disability in daily life skills as well as vocational, cognitive, academic, behavioral and social skills. It works with persons with intellectual disability in groups within the context of 6 self-advocacy groups. Persons with intellectual disability from the same area are gathered to empower them in knowing their disability rights, self-represent and protect themselves from abuse and violence as well as learn different vocational skills and find employment opportunities for them and include them in the community.

The Community Work Program works with family members through home visits to introduce them to the capacity of their children to accept and embrace them as well as empower families to become trainers to assist their children and build their capacity. The Program also works with family groups to give them the opportunity to assist each other, exchange their experiences, and learn about any available services, disability rights and how to claim them. It also empowers family groups economically and socially through providing them with training sessions and developing their vocational skills (handcrafts). Family groups are also included in community support groups. A group of families was established to form a committee of 7 members. This Committee aims to assist persons with intellectual disability to enjoy their rights through involving them in activities and approaching decision makers to call them to meet their needs and demands. It is important to note that two members of the Committee are also members in the Advocacy Committee.

The Advocacy Committee is a committee of 9 local community institutions, 2 family members from the Family Committee and 2 persons with intellectual disability. This Committee seeks to exercise pressure on policy makers to implement the Palestinian laws and the International Convention for People with Disability. It also aims to develop position papers to be submitted to the competent authorities to advocate for the rights of persons with disability.

The Community Work Program works with local community institutions to convince them include disability rights and issues in their agendas and programs and eventually become disability friendly institutions. It also aims to establish community advocacy committees which include local community institutions, family members and persons with disability to support inclusion of persons with disability in the community.

The Community Work Program seeks to access different networks and forums in Palestine to represent and include the rights of persons with intellectual disability in all activities and programs. It also raises the awareness of the Palestinian community on the rights of persons with intellectual disability through mass media and lectures in schools as well as meetings and trainings and participating in conferences and workshops to represent persons with intellectual disability.

By the end of 2019, the Community Work Program seeks to meet Star Mountain’s strategic goals including raising the awareness of the Palestinian community, families, individuals, institutions and policy-makers on the rights and capacities of persons with intellectual disability and strives to change local and national policies in accordance with the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Palestinian Law.

Purpose and objectives of the midterm evaluation

The midterm evaluation of the above described program is part of its deliverables and is an important part of the development process, supposed to help the centers’ leadership and program team examine the level of achievement, challenges and lessons learned since the start of the project in January 2017.

Regarding approaches and methodologies, it will help SMRC find out what works and what doesn’t work to promote PWIDs rights to dignified life and inclusive society.

Moreover, the evaluation is expected to assess the following:

• Performance in terms of the effectiveness of activities, strategies and mechanisms used to achieve the program objectives


• The relevance of the program objectives to the general societal context,


• Changes affected by the program interventions and activities.


• Program sustainability.


• Point out lessons learned.

The Main questions to be addressed by the evaluation include but not limited to the following: 

• To what extent the program objectives were achieved and which factors have inhibited their achievement?


• Were the program plans, activities and methods appropriate and relevant to the local community needs and context?


• Did the activities and outputs contribute to achieving the planned outcomes and effects?


• Were the employed strategies and methods appropriate for the local context and the planned outcomes


• How accessible were the program services and activities to persons with intellectual disabilities?


• How far has the inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities into the local community been achieved?


• How sustainable are these achievements?


• What are the program contributions to the societal changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices towards persons with intellectual disabilities?


• Which barriers hindering inclusion of persons with disabilities were successfully addressed – which not and why?


• What are the major factors that can influence (positively or negatively) the achievement of program sustainability - at the institutional level and the societal level?

The evaluation is expected to be a constructive dialogue with all actors and stakeholders involved, ensuring inclusive and participatory methodologies, consideration for diversity, including gender and accessibility concerns.

The methodology of the evaluation is expected to involve at least the following:

• Review of program documents (proposal, reports, monitoring tools, etc.)


• Interviews with key staff from Star Mountain management and community program as well as relevant stakeholders and partners


• Focus group discussions or individual interviews with end beneficiaries.

Procedures and expected steps

- An initial briefing with the program staff.

- Development of the evaluation matrix based on briefing with staff and literature review.

- Field work

- Submission of draft evaluation report and learning paper on lessons learnt for review by Star Mountain.

- Submission of final evaluation report and learning paper within one week of receiving SMRC comments on the draft.

Outputs and deliverables

The evaluator is expected to provide the following documents:

1. An evaluation matrix outlining the key questions and indicators of the evaluation, data collection methods and sources of information for each of the questions and a work schedule


2. Final evaluation report, including an executive summary of maximum 2 pages, and specific recommendations with regard to a potential follow-up of the project with reasoning.


3. Lessons learned: A learning paper for dissemination (ie. for example, a 2-page document in bullet points) on lessons learnt and good practices taken from the program