Sunday, December 22, 2019

De Fun Maison celebrates anniversary with Special Needs Children and Orphans


De Fun Maison, an organization that offers playground services for children on Sunday celebrated their first anniversary feasting hundreds of children with Special needs and orphans.

The children and orphans invited from the New Horizon School, Good Shepherd Orphanage, Living Stream Church, Royal Seeds Orphanage, Great Missions home and the Light Mission hone were treated to sumptuous meals and drinks and engaged in fun games.

Each of the organizations also received items including bags of rice, boxes of tin tomatoes, detergents, some groceries and baby diapers as donation from De Fun Maison.

Mr Kofi Asante Karikari, General Manager of De Fun Maison told the Special Mothers Project that all year round they have had an opportunity to serve “priviledged children”.

“We usually do not get children from orphanages or children with special needs patronize our services so in celebrating a year of our existence we wanted to reach out to such children and share our warmth and love with them,” he added

Madam Isabella Mawuli, Chief Executive Officer of De Fun Maison, addressing the children said the event is going to be a yearly affair for children with Special Needs and orphans.

“We should all endeavour to show more love to these children by cuddling them when we have the opportunity and let them feel belonged,” she admonished the care givers.

Ms Mawuli said De Fun Maison as an organization believed in nurturing young ones in the right environment and found it appropriate to reach out to those considered as underprivileged.

The Special Mothers Project is a registered advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy and families raising children with special Needs. The project has established an online community of families raising children with Special Needs and offer psychosocial support for such families

Friday, December 20, 2019

Special Mothers Project Defined! Report on Activities for the year 2019


The year 2018 was a learning curve for the Special Mothers Project, this learning curve has given birth to a vivid definition to what the Special Mothers Project stands for.

Our Definition as Special Mothers Project also guides our way forward as a project.

In 2019, The Special Mothers Project operated with the theme: “Changing the Narrative” the Project broadened its scope from talking about families raising children with cerebral palsy and advocating for efficient policies for them to include all children with Special Needs.

We got mothers of children with Down syndrome, Osteogenesis Imperfecta and Autism join our online whatsapp platform and participate effectively in our activities, sharing insights about their peculiarities to enrich our advocacy messages.

Parents and families raising children with Special Needs across the country (Ghana) continue to reach out to the Special Mothers Project for support.

The Special Mothers Project gives support to these families by highlighting their situation in the media, providing professional counselling and psychosocial support to these families and pointing them to the limited but available support services

The Special Mothers Project developed a referral system for families that called for support  to enable them know who, where and what to do and where to seek help while providing them with information on available government policies as well as suggesting to government policies that we think might enhance the lives of families raising children with Special Needs

We maintain an active blog and active social media platforms where information is readily available for families needing help.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The Special Mothers Project has established an online community of parents of children with Special Needs where rich experiences are shared and peer counselling takes place

The Special Mothers Inclusive Centre serves as a stop gap facility for families needing urgent help and prioritizes the counselling of families raising children with Special Needs but is more active during vacations where children enrolled are cared for and engages in play and recreational therapy.

Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Founder and Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project has been inducted into the Ghana Psychological Council as a Psychologist Assistant. Mrs Awadzi is focusing on providing psychosocial support to families raising children with Special Needs

The Special Mothers Project had a vibrant year with regards to mainstream media publicity, we are given opportunity to speak on major media networks and channels to share information on cerebral palsy and children with Special Needs in general

We had a successful Special Needs Parenting Summit in September 2019 and had massive publicity on the activity. Link to some media stories on the Special Needs Parenting Summit

The Special Mothers Project was appointed to join a National Technical Committee reviewing Ghana’s Disability Law. Mrs Awadzi said: “Being on the Committee is an opportunity to serve my country while I learn as much as possible but most importantly I go to the table with the concerns of parents and families raising children with Special Needs.”


WAY FORWARD

The Focus of the Special Mothers Project is going to be mainly media advocacy and suggesting policies that enhances the lives of families raising children with Special Needs

The Project will engage in the media campaign that emphasizes on the need to implement the already existing laws.

The Special Mothers Project will raise awareness throughout society, including at the Family Level regarding children with Special Needs to foster respect and dignity for families raising children with Special Needs using the media platforms

The Project will also focus on encouraging all organs of the media to portray children with Special Needs in a manner that maintains respect and dignity for families nurturing children with special needs

The Special Mothers Project will promote awareness training programmes regarding children with Special Needs and Families raising children with Special Needs.

The Project will also embark on research and knowledge sharing activities. In the year 2020, The Special Mothers Project will publish the revised edition of the all time Inspirational book "The Unexpected" that chronicles Hannah Awadzi's journey with her daughter who has cerebral palsy.

The revised edition of the book will share some insights learned since starting the project, some shared experiences with the Project and make proposals for effective implementation of Ghana's disability laws and policies

CHALLENGES


Running an advocacy campaign without any formal financial support is daunting and we have done this from 2015 to 2019, hence there will be no physical meeting for the online community unless requested by an organization or on demand.

Having a physical meeting requires a lot of finances, hiring of venue, renting of canopies and chairs and serving refreshment as well as providing TNT where necessary.

We continue to operate with a financial deficit, since we do not get any income but rather pay for the use of internet services, fuel, refreshments, renting of venues for our programmes and providing TNT for some of the volunteers, the cost of operation keeps rising.

GRATITUDE

The media in Ghana has been of tremendous support to publicising the activities and programmes of the Special Mothers Project for free most of the time. I cannot mention all the media outlets here for lack of space but may I single out Mr Elvis Darko, Editor of the Finder Newspaper, I do not know how to thank him effectively but to pray for God’s blessing on his life.

To all those who continued to support us with their widows mite this year, The (De) Blend Group Acacia Shade, Van Moorhouse Foundation (VMF) God Bless you richly. Special Mention to the Supporting Tools Enabling Parents (STEP) project for taking time to train our members and partner organization when they were in Ghana in May 2019

Some members of the group offered great support, and I cannot mention you all, God Bless you all abundantly.

Please our financial report for the year 2019 will be up on our website www.specialmothers.org by March of 2020. Meanwhile the Financial Report for year 2018 is uploaded for your information.


Saturday, December 14, 2019

VMF donates to Special Mothers Project


 The Van Moorhouse Foundation (VMF), a charity organization, on Saturday donated clothing, toys and some toiletries to the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy organization for families raising children with special needs.

Mr Micheal K Darkwah, Leader of the VMF team presenting the items to the Special Mothers Group, said , VMF has committed itself  to support people who are less privileged in Ghana.

“We have once supported the Oncology Department at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and we look for other groups and organizations needing help to support, we believe in enhancing lives.”

 Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project, expressed gratitude for the gesture  and explained that the Special Mothers Project was mainly concerned with advocating for the right policies that supports families raising children with Special

She said: “The Special Mothers is advocating for the implementation of existing policies on disability and calling for more policies that enhances the lives of families raising children with Special Needs. 
When we get such donations if makes us know that people are thinking about children with Special Needs and their families.”

Mrs Awadzi called on government to prioritize issues affecting children with cerebral palsy and all children with disabilities.