Abstract:
This study aims to investigate the place of spirituality in the care and development of children with disabilities and in situations of social vulnerability. The research context is a shelter called Associação Casa da Hospitalidade (ACH), located in the municipality of Santana, State of Amapá, which serves about 80 children with various disabilities, coming from family and social exclusion. The research seeks to answer the following question: “What is the place of spirituality in the care, development and social and school inclusion process of children with disabilities?” From this question, the general objective of this study was formulated: To understand how spirituality is developed, with regard to care and development, in the process of social and school inclusion of children with disabilities at Casa da Hospitalidade. It is a qualitative research, with the support of bibliographic and documentary sources. Data collection was carried out by means of in loco observations about the entire structure and functioning of the ACH, reported in a logbook. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with ten professionals who work at ACH. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed in the light of the hermeneutic method. The results point to the lack of clarity about the real sense of spirituality in the dimension of care, on the part of the interviewees, and show that spirituality is not practiced in a way consistent with the needs of children. This study also made it possible to perceive the need for specific and frequent actions, in the routine of the ACH, that involve spirituality as a way of easing the conflicting behaviors that the children present. Another difficulty is the lack of training of professionals, which compromises the integral development of children. Finally, ACH needs the support of government agencies, in order to bring trained professionals to specialized educational assistance, in order to meet the different demands.
