Support us – Special Needs Mom to Minister of Gender

A special needs mother in Kumasi has called on the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection  to put in place policies that enhances the lives of families raising children with cerebral palsy

Ms Abena Owusu Konadu, mother of a four year old boy with cerebral palsy said her family has been struggling since they had their child.

“I now live on the benevolence of family and friends, both myself and my husband lost our jobs because of the many hospital appointments. Sometimes when I go to the hospital and I am giving a prescription to buy medication, I have to lie that my ATM card is not working,”

“We are a young family and we have used all our money and savings to pay medical bills, I am tired of living on the benevolence of family and friends, I want to work and earn an income of my own.”

Ms Konadu narrating her story to The Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation platform on cerebral palsy issues, said she has started an errands business but need to put the child 

into school to be able to make time to grow the business.

“I started the “Heart and Home Errands services” where I run errands for busy families, I can do their laundry, shop for them, provide cleaning services and take care of general domestic services at an affordable price but I need money to send my son to school to enable me grow the business.”

Ms Kondau said she found a school for her son but the admission fee is 2000 cedis and an additional 400 cedis monthly to pay a facilitator,

“We don’t have any money now to pay this upfront, we have used all our savings to pay for medical bills, we go on frequent admissions and my son still get seizures, seizure medication is expensive but we cannot take him off, we are struggling to make ends meet,” she said

Ms Konadu said she used to work as a hospital administrator while the husband worked in a business firm but they got laid off

“I wish I could get someone to pay my son’s admission fee in school so that I can put him in school and work to earn an income of my own, I am tired of living on the benevolence of others,” she reiterated 

You may also share your Inspiring story with the Special Mothers Project www.specialmothers.org. If you are touched to support Abena Konadu with the admission fee of his son call Abena on 0553142934

Special Educators admits to low knowledge on cerebral palsy

Some Special Educators who participated in a training programme on cerebral palsy on Tuesday said they have been enlightened a lot

“We did not know that there were adaptive devices that could be used for children with cerebral palsy in the classroom,”

“We did not know that we could make adaptive equipment with cardboards and pieces of paper,” Mr Kweku Nkum Yeboah, Teacher at the Twin City Special School told The Special Mothers Project in an interview.

The Special Mothers Project uses the media to advocate on cerebral palsy issues

Mr Yeboah said it has been a useful two weeks training session which will enhance their work as special educators, going forward.

Mrs Patience Kyei, Special Educator at the Dansoman Community Special School, said she will communicate what she had learnt to her colleague teachers.

“Many teachers in the regular stream do not understand special education and are not able to handle children with special needs especially cerebral palsy, with the two weeks training, our school will be more open to accept children with cerebral palsy.”

Mrs Kyei said she is also willing to do outreach programmes on cerebral palsy in the community, while making sure to also engage more with parents of children with special needs

Mr Victor Atitsogbi, Special Educator at Three Kings Special School, Battor, said he will be organizing a trainer of trainers programme for his school to enhance their understanding on cerebral palsy.

The participants, however, urged government to be more committed to the education of children with special needs especially children with cerebral palsy in Ghana.

Children with cerebral palsy are usually very intelligent, most of the time their IQ is not affected by their disability but we do not have the infrastructure and the support we need to accept them into schools.

“We realize that there is very limited knowledge on children with cerebral palsy and all children with special need among the rank and file of the Ghana Education Service, hence very little is said about it,” they said emphasizing the need for government to show more commitment.

Ms Mandy Budge, Head of Multikids Africa, an organization  that advocates inclusion of children with special needs and organizers of the workshop said they intend to start a mobile therapy clinic to the various special needs school to ensure that the children get the required services

“Our Mobile Multidisciplinary team will work together with the schools to ensure that the children get the required therapy services while in school. We also hope to extend the training programme to all teachers,” she said

Ms Budge said Multikids Africa is committed to build the capacity of teachers and therapists locally to ensure continuity and sustainability of the training programme.

“We will also put in place an effective monitoring team to ensure that the right thing is being done,” she added

The training programme for Special Educators in selected special schools aimed at creating a group of teachers and university lecturers who will be able to incorporate children with cerebral palsy in the education environment.

The project on the theme: Enabling Education for children with cerebral palsy in Ghana also hopes to enhance the human resource capacity of professionals working with persons with cerebral palsy.

Two paediatric physiotherapists from the United Kingdom, Diane Lyle and Sophie Appleby provided practical hands on training to the teachers to enhance their knowledge on basic therapies they can do with the children in the classrooms.

While Ms Jean Westmacott, Head of CPA equipment trained the teachers in the making of the Appropriate Paper-based technology equipment

The programme is  funded by the UK Aid Direct with support from Cerebral Palsy Africa, Multikids Africa and SWEB Foundation will also equip the teachers to demonstrate strategies to sensitize communities to the needs of children with cerebral palsy and benefits that education can bring them.

You can also share your inspiring story with The Special Mothers Project www.specialmothers.org

NRCCD to open Model Inclusive School in September

The National Resource Centre for Children with Disabilities, an NGO committed to the inclusion of children with disabilities, will in September this year, open a model inclusive school that welcomes all children to school.

The school located at Agbogba in Accra was adopted by the African Rights Initiative International and refurbished, with the support of Ecobank Foundation, has an assessment unit, counselling and placement unit, academic resource centre, sick bay, conference room for teachers and other facilities to cater for children with all kinds of Disabilities.

As part of preparation to have a smooth opening and operations of the school in September, Ms Cynthia Tysick, Associate  Professor  at the Department of Education in the University of Buffalo is in Ghana to train various stakeholders on disability issues as well as on inclusive education.

So far, Ms Tysick has had training with the Education Directorate at the Ga East Municipal Assembly and had also trained personnel in non-governmental organizations engaged in advocacy on disability issues

 Mr Prince Oduro, Founder and Executive Director of the African Rights Initiative International (ARII)  told the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy issues that the Agbogba Anglican School is a government school and thus affordable to all.

He said the ARII and the National Resource Centre for Children with Disabilities (NRCCD) has engaged with various stakeholders ensure that the school becomes a real inclusive model for other schools to follow

Mr Paul Anoma-Kodee, Executive Director of the NRCCD, who is leading the Model Inclusive School project said opening the school in September is the first concrete step towards ensuring that we move from talking about inclusive education to actually implementing inclusive education.

The Special Mothers Project is an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy issues, the project uses the media to advocate and promote issues on disability and inclusion.

You may also share your (inspiring) story on Disability or cerebral palsy with us