Klicks Africa Foundation supports aged Special Needs Mom with GHS 100,000

 Klicks Africa Foundation, an organisation that supports teens and youth on the Autism Spectrum has donated GHS100,000 to Madam Mary Yawo Grunitzky, a 75-year-old Special needs mother.

Madam Mary Grunitzky, a widow and a single mother, has a 44-year-old son with cerebral palsy and has engaged in all kinds of jobs in addition to solely taking care of his son to be able to survive daily.

Mrs Mary Amoah Kuffuor, Founder and Executive Director of Klicks Africa Foundation who made the presentation to Madam Grunitzky said she was tagged on Facebook by the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy programme for families of children with cerebral palsy with Madam Grunitzky's story.

She said was touched by the plight of the aged woman knowing how difficult it is to nurture a child with disability and thus decided to raise funds to support the woman.

“The woman is old and needs support, she cannot do much to support herself,” she told the Special Mothers Project.

Mrs Kuffuor expressed her profound gratitude to her Facebook followers for believing in her and supporting her to support the aged special needs, Mom.

Madam Grunitzky who was visibly surprised by the donation, could only utter “God bless all who donated to me abundantly.”

Mr Agbeko Awadzi, co-founder of the Special Mothers Project, also expressing gratitude to the donors, said Madam Grunitzky reached out to the Special Mothers Project calling for help.

“The Special Mothers Project took to social media to share the story of Madam Grunitzky and the results has been positive.”

He expressed special thanks to Mrs Kuffuor for taking the issue up.

The Special Mothers Project is an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy issues and issues affecting families of children with disabilities.

 

Special Mother Project Report 2023: SMP becomes a GFD affiliate

 

The Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy issues and issues affecting families raising children with disabilities became an affiliate of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) in the year 2023.

Being a member and an affiliate of the GFD gives us a bigger platform for our advocacy and to table our issues especially issues affecting Mothers of children with disabilities to a bigger audience.

The Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) is an umbrella organisation to eight different disability group, and it gives us the opportunity to learn about the challenges of the other disability group and build our capacity in disability advocacy.

The Special Mothers Project therefore participated in the programmes and trainings of the GFD, some of our members participated in a training on Disability rights, the Convention of the Rights of Persons wit Disability and also the celebration and observance of this year’s International Disability Day celebrations.

Being a member of the GFD also opened a window of opportunity for the Special Mothers Project to feed into National policies being reviewed. Some of the policies include the Inclusive Education Policy, the Affirmative Action Bill and the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy (ECCD)

The Special Mothers Project has been a member of the Technical Committee reviewing Ghana’s Disability Law (Act 715).

Training

Some Members of the Special Mothers Project were recruited by the Centre for Learning and Childhood Disabilities (CLCD) to be part of a pilot project call the Peer Health Navigators Programme. Under the programmes the selected parents were trained to become peer health navigators for their colleague parents of children with disabilities

Some Members also benefitted from a training organised by Disability Awareness Teachers Support Service (DATSS) where parents some of whom own training facilities were trained on how to handle their children and what kinds of educational programmes they can have for their children.

Members also participated in a series of GFD training programmes.

Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project also trained some parents of children with disabilities at the Adentan Municipality. The training empowered the parents to become effective advocates for their children and to push for inclusion.

Some parents also participated in a training organised jointly by the Special Mothers Project and Psychotherapist Ms Colleen Chifamba on how to handle children with disabilities. That training also built the emotional capacities of parents.

The Special Mothers Project with the support of Dr Eunice Abbey gave a presentation of at the Disability in Education Conference organised by the University of Ghana, School of Education and Leadership.

The Presentation was titled: In the name of Ubuntu: The Special Mothers Project, Changing the lives of Mothers and their children  with Disabilities in Ghana

Donations

The WhatsApp platform of the Special Mothers Project organised a fund raiser led by Special Mother Ellen Berko, for the project at the beginning of the year. The funder raiser realized an amount of GHS2600 to support our advocacy work.

The Project also donated reusable diapers and reuseable sanitary pads to some parents and some students of the Madina Demonstration School. The Reusable diapers were donated to the Special Mothers Project by Noah Mapalo help Centre, a nonprofit voluntary organisation in the UK.

A number of philanthropists also donated some monies to support individual families of children with disabilities across the country. One of the beneficiary families received a brand-new deep freezer to enable her sell iced blocks, ice cream and water to support herself and her daughter

In all about six families in various parts of Ghana benefitted from seed monies to start a business (Micro enterprise)

The project supported some parents with monies to buy medication, food or diapers  

Media

The Special Mothers Project does advocacy mainly using the media, both mainstream media and social media. The project published a number of articles, shared many post of social media to create awareness on cerebral palsy and the situation of children with disabilities in Ghana in general.

The Special Mothers Project also featured in a documentary on Ghana Broadcasting Corporation titled: The Great Commission by Mrs Beatrice Senadju Boateng.

Partnership with the Rotary Club

The Special Mothers Project partnered with the Rotarian President of Accra-Teshie Nungua on a project dubbed: “Okamafo”

Under the Okamafo Project, the Rotary Club of Teshie Nungua and the Donor Community Forum of the Rotary Club is embarking on a fund raising drive in support of children with cerebral palsy and persons with mental health conditions.

The Special Mothers Project provided free consultancy for the project.

The Caregiver Institute

The Caregiver Institute is a programme by the Special Mothers Project started about three years ago to recruit and train young people interested in working as caregivers at the family level for children with disabilities.

We haven’t had much success with regards to this particular programme but we will continue to advocate for it .

Counselling

The Special Mothers Project provides counselling to parents of children with Cerebral palsy and also parents of children with other disabilities. Mrs Hannah Awadzi, a registered Psychologist Assistant with the Ghana Psychological Council discussed mostly with parents to the pathway for their children and how parents can empower themselves emotionally for the Special Needs Parenting Journey

Way Forward

In 2024, The Special Mothers Project will be recruiting new board members, some members on our board are moving on and they would be replaced with new board members.

We will continue to maintain our website www.specialmothers.org and our blog as well as intensify the media advocacy both in mainstream media and on social media

The Special Mothers Project will continue  with the advocacy on caregiver support and building other support systems that will help enhance the lives of families of children with disabilities

This will include providing caregiver training and connecting trained caregivers to families that need them.

The Project will continue to connect or link families to the available support systems and work with other organisations to create support systems for families raising children with disabilities in Ghana and beyond.

The Special Mothers Project will engage in policy dialogues and will be available to train organisations willing to do something for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

The Project will continue to offer both paid counselling and pro-bono counselling services where necessary (Most of the counselling services we provide are pro-bono)

Now Accepting Donations

You may donate to the Special Mothers Project via the account name

Hannah Awadzi

Fidelity Bank

Adentan Branch

Account Number :2030026812954

Or on Momo number:  0244547980

 

Passage of the Disability Act will impact over 2,098,138 Ghanaians with functional disabilities

 

Dr Edward Ampratwum, Head of Governance and Growth at the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) has said that the passage of the Disability Act 715 will positively impact the lives of the over 2,098,138 Ghanaians with functional difficulties. 

He therefore urged Government and Parliament to expedite actions to pass the Re-Enacted Act of the Act 715 and any associated instrument. 

“The UN Country Team is excited to support the re-enactment of Act 715, (Persons with Disabilities Act). It is our hope that by the end of 2024, the Act 715 and its accompanying legislative instrument addressing the preconditions for disability inclusion, would have been reviewed to be in line with the CRPD standards, and passed.”  

Dr Ampratwum made the remarks during a training organised by the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) for Members of Parliament on the rights of persons with disabilities and inclusive development. 

The training was attended by about 24 members of parliament who have interest in promoting disability rights in parliament. 

Dr Ampratwum said, “the Ghana we want should be disability-inclusive, tackle injustice and discrimination, provide accessible infrastructure and create opportunities that increase access to technology that result in strengthened institutions and creating sustainable jobs and access to markets for persons with disabilities as well.” 

Mr Abdul-Wahab Adam, Programmes Officer at the GFD urged the members of parliament to fast-track the process of re-enacting the disability act and called on government to ensure the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Ghana. 

Dr Clement Apaak, Member of Parliament for Builsa South Constituency and Chairman of the Disability caucus in Parliament said more Members of Parliament were recognising the need to mainstream disability issues in Ghana. 

He said the caucus will canvass for members of parliament to push for the re-enactment of the disability bill and pointed out that Ghana should not lag in the issues of disability mainstreaming issues. 

Dr Emmanuel Marfo, Member of Parliament for Oforikrom Constituency and Vice Chairman of the disability caucus said there was the need to move beyond the talk when it came to disability issues and take practical steps to ensure disability inclusion and mainstreaming. 

Mr Joseph Atsu Homadzi, President of the GFD, who also emphasized the urgency to pass the disability bill said disability is everybody’s lot and called on parliament to put measures in place to include persons with disabilities. 

Accept It!

  I remember the first time someone told me in the face to Accept my daughter Eyram (She lives with Cerebral palsy)

I had gone to sit in the prayer garden of the Mount Moriah prayer centre. I  can't remember if it was the normal Wednesday programme or a Special one.

I sat between two elderly women, (I later got to know one was a Retired Reverend Minister)

The woman watched me struggle with two babies who were not twins.  One about 6months old and another two years plus but practically needed help with just everything.  Her neck kept flopping backwards,  she couldn't sit by herself. I had to hold her in a particular way to get her in a sitting position and that was hard.

I looked tired, even though I was there for a prayer meeting,  I just couldn't pray. All I did was to think about the children and occasionally gaze absent mindedly into the air.

This woman must have watched me for sometime. She started engaging me in a conversation but I wasn't too interested.  I gave her straight forward answers and turned my face off at the least opportunity. 

It wasn't time for me to engage in any conversation.  I just wanted to be .

Then she said ACCEPT IT. I heard that loud and clear but she repeated Accept it. I nodded, didn't know how to respond to that advice in the moment I just nodded.

That simple advice was to hunt me later on in life. Occasionally,  I would hear those words echo back to me. At one point when I remembered those words, I got angry, in fact furious. 

I remember shouting into the thin air as if that elderly  woman could hear me.

How could she, how could she have advised me to Accept it. Would she have accepted it? I was determined to pray Cerebral palsy out of my daughter,  it wasn't in the plan to Accept it but with time that simple advice became the most meaningful advice I ever had.

I slowly learnt to accept that  my daughter lives with Cerebral palsy.  It was a condition that she was going to live with till a miracle happened. Yes I believe in miracles and in prayer but I also learnt one important thing; that if you cannot get a miracle,  be the miracle. 

I slowly learnt to let go all desperation and trust the universe (God) more.

I learnt to take it one day at a time. I  learnt gratitude in the process and engaged in gratitude journaling and meditation every single day of my life.

Gradually,  I began to welcome genuine joy and happiness into my life.

I got to a point where I realised that I was exuding joy and positivity. 

I embraced contentment and started to love my life again. 

That simple advice Accept it, with time, made all the difference in my life.

Human as I am,  there are times I sink. Occasionally,  I will catch myself thinking like: "if only Eyram was a regular 10 year old..." but within this same journey has been moments of excitement over what someone will call little. 

I have laughed loudly, I smile broadly and have become very self aware.

I learnt to understand that simple advice the elderly woman gave me. ACCEPT IT.

That advice still flashes through my mind every once in a while and when it does I just remind myself that God knows,  God understands and God is involved. 

My dear just Accept it!

Children with disabilities also go through the cycle of grief - Psychotherapist

 

Ms Colleen Chifamba, a psychotherapist and disability consultant on Tuesday advised parents of children with disabilities to learn about the emotional cycles involved with nurturing a child with disability to be able to effectively support their children.

She said: Children with disabilities also go through the cycle of grief that parents go through, and parents need to understand their own emotions and develop patience to enable them effectively support their children

Ms Chifamba, also person with disability, who lives with a condition called Spina Bifida, said this at a training organised by the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy programme for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities as well as their parents.

The training touched on the emotional processes involved in nurturing a child with disability, understanding the cycle of grief and how it relates to nurturing a child with disability, integrating children with disability into the family and becoming an efficient advocate for children with disability.

Ms Chifamba  reiterated the need for support groups like the Special Mothers Project where parents can be free to share their emotions and be supported and advised participants not to invalidate the feelings of parents going through the cycle of grief.

“It is important for parents to know and acknowledge where they are in their cycle of grief,” saying, parents go through the cycle of grief at different stages in their children’s development.

She also urged parents to have family rules that cover all children in their household and not treat their children as special and therefore without discipline.

“You must discipline your child with disability like you do with all other children,” she said.

Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project, advised parents to work in unity to ensure that the government responds to the needs of children with disabilities in our society.

“We can come together to advocate for inclusive education, Inclusive health, rehabilitation centres, the availability of affordable and trained caregivers and a lot more,” she said.

Naa Densua, a special needs parents and a specialist teacher, said it was important to have more early years inclusive educational centres, and explained that some children with disabilities are able to overcome their disability once there is early intervention in that direction.

She also advised that the Special Mothers Project works closely with healthcare centres and hospitals to guide new parents of children with disabilities with the real-life experiences of nurturing a child with disability.

Some participants shared their experiences in parenting their children with disabilities.

We need a number of physically challenged MPs in Parliament – Speaker

 

Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin has said that parliament as an institution is committed to the cause of disability and inclusion in Ghana.

“We need to have a number of physically challenged persons as Members of Parliament, it is one of the benchmarks for assessing parliaments in the world,” he said.

Mr Bagbin made the remark when selected members of the disability movement and the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) paid a courtesy call on him.

The Speaker of Parliament said: “we are working on all these things to make our parliament inclusive; we will do our best to inaugurate the disability caucus by the end of the year.”

The GFD is pushing for Parliament to have a formalized disability caucus that will support the disability movement in its advocacy and to help effectively monitor and contribute to the disability discussions on the floor of parliament.

Ms Rita Kyeremaa Kusi, Executive Director of the GFD who led the delegation said there was the need for an enriched and enhanced conversation on disability issues at the parliamentary level.

She called on the Speaker to help facilitate the re-enactment of the disability law to enable persons with disabilities enjoy their rights in Ghana.

Ms Kusi also mentioned that Ghana is yet to ratify the African Disability Protocol (ADP), a protocol that considers African practices and concerns in dealing with disability issues.

She said the process to sign and ratify the ADP started many years ago but there has been challenges and called on the speaker for support in the process.

Interim leaders of the disability caucus of parliament were at the meeting to lend their support.

Dr Emmanuel Marfo, Member of Parliament for Oforikrom Constituency, Mr Clement Apaak, Member of Parliament for Builsa South and Ms Darkoa Newman, Member of Parliament for Okaikwei South, all pledged their unflinching support to the disability movement in Ghana.

They also added their voice to the call for the formalization and inauguration of the disability caucus in parliament to enable them to do more.

The Special Mothers Project was part of the delegation that paid a courtesy call on the speaker

Special Mothers Project donates reusable diapers, sanitary pads to parents and students

 

The Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation organisation on cerebral palsy issues has distributed reusable diapers to selected members.

The organisation also donated reusable sanitary pads to students of the Madina Demonstration school.

The reusable diapers and sanitary pads were donated from Noah Mapalo help centre, a non-profit voluntary organisation, a UK based organisation that supports deprived families with reusable sanitary products.

The beneficiary families 16 in all, are all parents of children with cerebral palsy whose children depend on diapers every day.

One of the families told the Special Mothers Project that the reusable diapers came at the right time, “I was contemplating on where to get money to buy diapers for the next week, then this came in”

The parents expressed gratitude to the donors for the gesture.

DATSS engages special needs parents on teacher support services

 

Disability Awareness Teachers Support Service (DATSS), a non-governmental organisation that provides support to teachers and teachers aid  working with students with disabilities has trained parents of children with cerebral palsy to equip them to handle their children’s education better.

The training focused on the strategies, tactics and tools used to educate children with special educational needs and parents’ preparedness to educate their children.

Dr Comfort Walker, Chief Executive Officer of DATSS, said her organisation aimed at training educated persons to become teachers aid in various schools and even at the household level to support children with cerebral palsy and other disability to be educated.

“We hope to train National Service persons to work as Teacher aids in the various schools to support government’s inclusive education agenda or at home to educate children who need special education,”

Dr Walker who specializes in low incidence disability and has worked as a special education teacher in the United States for 17 years said having teachers aid in schools was a good start, “your child with special needs going to school will not be limited.

Sharing her own experience, she said “I was educated in Ghana, and I struggled a bit in school because the way I learn was not how I was taught.”

Dr Walker urged parents to equip themselves with information and data about their children to enable them to educate them.

The parents, members of the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation organisation on cerebral palsy issues,  asked practical questions and shared their lived experiences.

 

Adenta Municipal Assembly trains caregivers of children with disabilities

 

The Adenta Municipal Assembly on Friday organised a training session for caregivers of children with disabilities, calling on especially parents to exude positivity about their children.

Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project, a not-for-profit advocacy organisation and resource person for the training, urged the parents to speak positively and work hard to train their children with disabilities to become useful members of society.

“Let’s join hands to start a positive thread about our children with disabilities, let’s affirm them, let’s encourage them and let’s love them so that society can emulate our positive behaviors.

The training programme brought together about 50 parents of children with diverse forms of disability.

Mrs Awadzi advised the parents to accept their children, love them and show them kindness and also become their number one advocate in society.

“We need to speak up for our children, we need to teach society about the positives, and we have to join hands to advocate for good implementable policies for our children.

She said parents could also come together to support one another, especially with the backing of the Assembly.

Many of the participants and caregivers who shared their experiences expressed concerns about the lack of educational facilities for their children.

Mr Divine Arnold Kodjo Exorgbe, Municipal Head at the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, Adenta Municipal, told the parents and caregivers about the services and programs that the Department offers.

“At the Adenta Municipal, we support primary caregivers with education, Trade and investment using the Disability Funds for persons with disabilities at the Assembly.”

Mr Exorgbe urged parents to put in a yearly application for funds for their children’s educational support.

He encouraged the parents to join hands with the Special Mothers Project to start a support group within the municipality where they could support one another and join hands to advocate for favourable policies.

Disability Inclusion is a cross-cutting theme in the activities of the World Bank

 

Ms Eunice Yaa Brimfah Ackwerh, a Senior Educational Specialist at the World Bank Ghana Office, has said disability inclusion was a cross-cutting theme in the activities of the world Bank.

She said the World Bank as an institution was conscious of disability inclusion and therefore ensure that all their projects and programmes factored disability inclusion.

“We would like to see a time when in all our projects we engage persons with disabilities to guide as in how we include them,” Ms. Ackwerh said when the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) organised a conference to engage with development partners.

Ms. Ackwerh said: “We are making some progress when it comes to disability inclusion, yet there is so much more to be done.

The GFD partners conference brought together NGOs working in the disability sector, corporate organisations and developed partners to dialogue about disability inclusion and how all the organisations can work together to ensure disability inclusive development in Ghana.

Mr Joseph Atsu Homadzi, President of the GFD who courted continuous support from the partners said persons with disabilities suffer some forms of human rights abuse in Ghana.

“What we need is equal opportunities, once we are given the opportunity, we will excel. We have the capacity, we have the potential, and we can excel,” Mr Homadzi said.

Mr Yaw Ofori Debrah, a former President of the GFD said what persons with disability needed is understanding, opportunity and equity, “we do not need charity.”

Mr Moses Fordjour, Monitoring, Evaluation and knowledge Management Manager at the GFD, said government’s slow response to issues of disability results in the waning interest in the activities of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (OPDs)

“A Ghana without OPDs will be disastrously unimaginable,” he said.