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The Hidden Voice
Sr Maura is a Programme Therapist with thirty years experience in
working with children with special needs in Ireland. All the
children that she has worked with had intellectual and leaning
disabilities and quite a number also had physical disabilities, such
as cerebral palsy, spina bifida etc. Many of these children had
challenging behaviour or sight, hearing or language defects. Now Sr
Maura has come to Zambia to work with an already existing group, the
Parents Partnership Association, which works with such children here
in Lusaka.
Most of the children at the centre, when they first arrived, had no
independent skills. For example, they could not feed themselves,
they could not dress themselves and they were not toilet trained.
Daniel, one of the children now at the centre, was sent to a
mainstream school at the age of four, but because of his behaviour,
he was sent away. They did not know of his learning difficulties and
his hyperactivity; nor did they know how to deal with it. When he
was brought to the centre, he continued to exhibit the same
behaviour : crying, throwing stones, breaking windows. But after the
correct treatment, there has been an enormous change in him. He can
now talk coherently, he interacts with other children, he is toilet
trained and his academic work is progressing soundly.
The main area in which they work is Kalingalinga and they have
already identified over 200 children in this small area who are in
need of assistance. There are also another 1,339 children in other
areas of Lusaka who have been identified as needing special
attention and loving care. As you can imagine, this is most
disheartening for Sr Maura. It is also a dilemma which the parents
and relatives of these children have to face as they cannot meet the
needs of their children in basic self help skills education.
But it is worse than that.
Up until recently, the centre operated from a venue in Northmead,
but they have had to vacate these premises because of rising rental
costs. They are now temporarily housed in a totally unsuitable hall
shared by another group. This sharing has led to a lot of damage to
the equipment and teaching aids.
But that is not all. Like most institutions of this type, there are
many more problems to be faced each day. Running costs; equipment,
teaching aids, therapists, transport. Nothing new here.
The major running costs are rental on premises and the cost of
salaries. Now, they depend on contributions from parents of the
children and the many fund raising activities which they themselves
conduct. Equipment such as desks, chairs, second hand computers are
also needed. Many children have shown an improvement in eye/hand
co-ordination when using a computer. We understand that many readers
would not be willing to give cash donations because our experience
has taught us that quite often this money does not end up where it
was supposed to end up. But equipment is an area where readers can
help. Most of us have old pieces of furniture cluttering up the
storeroom or that old 486 computer which is gathering dust in the
spare room.
Wheelchairs, designed to accommodate children with conditions such
as cerebral palsy where they are unable to hold their head or feet
in position, are another requirement. They advise me that Zambia
does not have a speech therapist who can assist them and advise them
on the treatment of children with speech difficulties. A sign
language teacher would also be beneficial.
Transport is also a problem. Many children are unable to get to the
centre because of their physical disabilities.
The parents of these children also need support. They need to spend
time with their other children; they need time to do the shopping
chores.
The needs of the school are many as are the needs of the disabled
community. Hideen Voice is but one school serving children with
disabilities. As the school is run by the parents, they are able to
address many of the fears and difficulties that parents have about
the development of their children and they are able to share their
knowledge with other parents in the same situation. In this way,
they provide moral support to each other.
If any readers are interested in finding out more about Hidden
Voice, please contact Sr Maura on 01 239-269.
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January
2007