NGOs organise free therapy session for Children with Cerebral Palsy

Multikids Foundation in collaboration with the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy project on cerebral palsy will on Saturday, 4th March organise a free therapy session for children with cerebral palsy.

The programme dubbed: Community Clinic, is also meant to provide a platform for parents with children who have cerebral palsy to network and share ideas while learning some basic therapy skills to practise with their children at home.

Ms Amanda Budge, Head of Multikids Foundation, said her organisation wants to reach out to the huge numbers of children with cerebral Palsy who do not have access to any form of therapy.

The Free therapy sessions held every three months for parents with children who have cerebral palsy is to ensure that parents at least learn some skills to enable them practice therapy consistently at home.

Multikids Foundation also have weekly paid therapy sessions for parents , Ms Budge said and explained that proceeds from the paid therapy sessions goes to support the feeding of children at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.

Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Initiator of the Special Mothers Project commended Multikids Foundation for the collaboration, saying, “They are helping to bring hope to many parents with children who have cerebral palsy who might have lost hope.

She urged parents with children who have cerebral palsy to use the opportunity to learn basic therapy skills that could be practice at home with their children.

The programme will bring together physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapist and a dietician to answer questions that parents may have concerning managing their children with cerebral palsy at home.

The therapy session which will be held at the premises of Multikids Inclusive Academy at East Legon will start from 0900 and end at noon.

‘We lock up our child with CP ’ – Father confesses

Mr Timothy Nakoja, father of a 14 year old boy with cerebral palsy has said his family is forced to lock the child indoors to enable them work and earn a living

He said: “We have tried countless times to get the boy admitted into school but to no avail, we are left with no option than to lock him up in a room while we go and earn a living on a daily basis.”

Mr Nakoja was speaking in an interview with the GNA on the need for government to effectively implement the Inclusive Education Policy in Ghana.

“We were advised by a neurologist to send the boy to the mainstream school since it could facilitate his speech but we have been unsuccessful. First we tried some private primary schools in our area, but they all rejected him, then we went to try at the Government school in our locality and they refused him admission,” he lamented

Mr Nakoja said he had been to the Special Education Unit to talk with them on the issue, “we were referred to the National Resource centre where our son Eliezer was assessed and taken through a psychological test, we were then given a letter to go to Battor Special school but the school refused him admission on the basis that he was not toilet trained.”

“We have been to the Dzorwulu Special School on five occasions, we have been to Hohoe Special School, we have been to a Special School in the North, we have tried some private special schools, but they all give the same excuse, we do not have enough workers and cannot handle your child”

Mr Nakoja said his son who walked at the age of eight but can neither speak nor use his hands to feed himself. The frequent refusal to admit him had been attributed to the fact that he was not toilet trained and inability to speak.

He said:  “Nobody wants to deal with cleaning toilet on a daily basis, but he is a Ghanaian and has a right to education, I wish government could do something about this situation.”

Mr Nakoja said he developed a spinal problem because of carrying the boy all the time, saying, “I am unable to sit for long hours and it is very difficult to carry him around hence the decision to lock him up in a room while I go and earn a living.”

He called on the government to recruit care-givers especially in government schools and in the special schools to enable them to work with children who have cerebral palsy.

“Children with cerebral palsy are also citizens of Ghana, they have a right to education and quality life, we need schools and centres that admit these children to at least enable parents to work,” adding that many parents are forced to abandon their career because they have children with cerebral palsy.”

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that affects the movement and sometimes speech of children. It  is the number one cause of disability in children.