Sabbatical in Geneva - The Sultanate of Oman

Receiving a Welcome Gift from the Rehab Center Director

  In the work of the International Labour Organization, a unit of the United Nations, different countries, businesses, and organizations support their work through country dues or donations. Countries can make requests of the ILO to help out their country in any area of need related to labor such as vocational training or vocational rehabilitation. The ILO has it’s headquarters in Geneva Switzerland and has a series of regional offices in Beirut for the Middle East, Peru for the Americas, in Bangkok for the Asian countries, etc. The overriding purpose of the ILO is to work with governments, employers, and labor to promote decent work in the member countries. This would be work with a decent wage, decent working conditions, that is distributed fairly to all participants in society, and provides protection for the most vulnerable. The unit concerned with disability used to be a separate department but has shrunk to two people assigned to the skills and employment department. In responding to a country’s request for technical assistance, the ILO can hire technical consultants and/or send their staff to work on the problem in what they call a mission.

  My main assignment on this sabbatical working with the disability section of the ILO is to assist them in developing an online training program for their staff, interns, and others related to disability. As a coincidence, the ILO received a country request for the Sultanate of Oman for assistance in modernizing and improving services in the Al Khoudh Care and Rehabilitation Center located in the capital city of Muscat. There had been a previous rehabilitation mission in Oman that recommended work be done with the Al Khoudh center because they only serve two impairment groups and train them for one of six occupations and the previous consultant felt they need a vocational evaluation program and to modernize their services. Since this exactly fits my background, I was asked to go on a mission to Oman with Debra Perry, senior disability specialist from the main office and Mary Kawar, a regional ILO employee from the Beirut ILO regional office.  The three of us formed a mission team to answer the request from Oman that was submitted by our contact, Salam Salim Al Kindi who had been the director of the center and now is the ILO project manager for this project working for the Oman Ministry of Social Development.

  Oman is a country of 3,000,000 inhabitants of which 1/3^rd are ex-patriates brought in the country to work, which include mostly Indians with small percentages from the various Asian countries. It has been led the past 40 years by the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said who has dedicated himself to improving the standard of living of all Omani’s through modernizing the country and diversifying the economy from primarily oil production, farming, and fishing to other venues such as tourism and manufacturing. Oman is located beneath Saudi Arabia on the Gulf of Oman at the Strait of Hormuz next to Yeman and a short distance across the Gulf from Iran and Pakistan, above the eastern end of Africa and near the Western end of India. It is close to Aubu Dhabi and Dubai located above it in the UAE. Oman is a small desert country with sand mountains that roll down to the sea. We did not get to see it but inland there are natural springs, more desert, mountains, and a variety of differing scenery, unusual animals, and fruit production. Oman is on a the same latitude as Central India, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii so that it is tropical hot but in their desert country, it is extremely hot rising to over 125 in the summer and up in the high 90’s in October. Because of this, the Omanis often work until 1:00 pm, take a break until 4:00 pm and return until 8:00 pm. It was pleasant to be out in the morning and evening but blistering hot and bright in the afternoon when we were there in October. Like the southern USA, they have air conditioned everything and need it.  Oman is an Arab country with English as the second language everyone takes in school and my experience was that there was more English spoken than in Switzerland. Being a Muslim country, large Mosques are scattered around the city that broadcast the call to worship five times a day. We visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, a magnificent marble and sandstone structure surrounded by green grass and trees making it appear an Oasis. It boasts the largest crystal chandelier in the world weighing over 8 tons and the largest hand woven carpet in the world.  A typical Omani male wears a long white tunic over white cotton pants and a tee shirt with sandals. They uniformly wear either an embroidered pillbox hat normally, or, for more formal occasions, a turban that is used much like Americans put on a tie. For even more formal occasions, a black open front robe is added over the white tunics decorated with the Kandjar knife on the front waist held in a distinctively curved ornate silver scabbard that is ceremonial. The women wear a black floor length tunic with a black headscarf and a few also wear the face vale (not a Burka) with just their eyes showing. In the modern mall, some teen girls had their tunics opened on the front to reveal torn jeans and a tight shirt or tee shirt typical of U.S. teen garb. Others wear more western clothing. I found the Omani people to be proud of their country that is modernizing on every front including massive building all through the town of Muscat. The Omani’s treated us as special VIP guests and did everything they could to make us feel welcome and special from providing us a driver full time to serving us sweets and Arabic coffee or tea multiple times during the day. I was told this was done for special guests rather than being an everyday occasion.

 Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

  Our purpose was to look at the rehabilitation center but prior to that, we visited with staff from the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, the previous head of a disability advocacy group, and toured a renovated vocational training school that is just now allowing people with disabilities admission for training. They seem to have fully bought into Inclusive education and services in regular and vocational education. As we rolled up our sleeves and began work at the rehab center, I was struck that after a day at marveling at our differences, the same issues, students, and concerns showed up as at any other rehab center I’ve been in. The clients were curious about us and talked with us as we toured the six training areas and general literacy programs. We had a number of recommendations to help them modernize and fit within the Omani school and work structures as well as some recommendations on improving their tests and testing procedures even though we found they are doing a great deal of assessment in the right vein.

  Unfortunately, we were unable to get to the interior of the county and have to contend with books that show those pictures. I felt that in the few days we were there we made good friends with several Omani’s and I would welcome and relish the chance to return or have them to the USA. It certainly wasn’t like being in Alabama.

Girls Learning to Sew