CLES - Lebanese Center for Special Education

Making a difference…
one child at a time.

We provide free individualized assistance to children with specific difficulties that impact their learning at school all over Lebanon.

CLES provides free individualized assistance to children facing specific learning difficulties at school

1800

children

supported through

one-to-one therapies

6000

diagnosis

were made in

the diagnostic center

centers

distributed across

Lebanon

100

professionals

work at CLES

The road to peace goes through the education of children.

Carmen Chahine Debbane

Founder and CEO

Up to 20 percent of the student population is affected by Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs)

Are you a concerned parent?

Together with LAL (Lebanese Alternative Learning) we have created an online web for parents who would like to know more about their children’s specific learning difficulties. The microsite is equipped with articles, informative data, and assessment questions.

Check “Understanding Your Child”

Emergency Program

Care by CLES is a program launched in December 2019 in the aftermath of the challenging economic times Lebanon has been facing.

Care by CLES aims to reduce hunger by providing food and hygiene parcels to families in need all over Lebanon. Each package includes 5 parcels of food, hygiene products, and essential items that covers a family’s necessities for up to 6 weeks.

40,000
persons received food and essentials items

245,634
bags of food and essentials items

7,000
families regularly receive a ration of five bags

Learn more

In 2015, CLES designated October 10 of every year as the specific learning difficulties awareness day and has been raising awareness through conferences, TV shows, movie productions, and a music competition.

Dance by CLES initiative was designed in partnership with the National Dance Institute (NDI) in New York as part of CLES’s mission to provide all children with an equal opportunity and promote inclusion among them, regardless of their differences and learning capacities.

Dance by CLES is based on the National Dance Institute’s award-winning pedagogy developed under the leadership of Jacques d’Amboise.

The program started in August 2017 with a mission to bring dance and the arts to private and public schools in Lebanon.

'Shu Bene Mama' Play

“Shu Bene Mama?”, an educational play aimed at raising awareness, with scenes that shed light on four specific learning difficulties: Dyslexia, Dysphasia, Dyspraxia and ADHD.

Since 2012, the play has been presented in:

	120 public and private schools
	5 public libraries
	The ministry of education

Trainings

Starting in 2002, CLES has organized free annual training sessions for hundreds of teachers from public and private schools.

The training sessions cover different themes to familiarize teachers with various speciﬁc learning difﬁculties and are given by a professional Belgian Lebanese multidisciplinary team specialized in specific learning difficulties. The key objective of the sessions is to enable teachers to identify students with specific learning difficulties and refer them to relevant institutions that can provide the appropriate assistance.

200

Learning support

teachers trained

165

Training sessions

given at CLES

Learning Support Classes

In collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education, CLES launched “The Learning Support Classes”, a development project aimed at reducing school failure and dropouts.

As part of the project, classes are equipped with the necessary materials and technologies required to teach students with learning difficulties and provide 2-3 teachers from each school with the proper skills to help give students the required academic and educational support.

104 public schools

were equipped with

a learning support class

30000 students

supported in public schools