TQM report,
Safehost International Initiative in conjunction with PCC Homes in One Day Advocacy Seminar for Parents, Cargivers and Teachers have cautioned parents to stop abandoning their children with disabilities stating that it is not their fault that they found themselves in a condition with disability.
This advice came during an event which took place at Safehost International School in Kurudu, Abuja on Saturday addressing the Red Flags and Myths about disabilities.
The Executive Director of Safehost International Initiative, Mrs. Ngozi Beluolisa in her opening speech said that the idea behind the programme to educate parents, caregivers and teachers on how to observe their children in order identify or discover disability at early stage for early intervention.
She also said that it is for parents who have children with disabilities to know how to manage their disabilities as she frowned at the idea of abandoning the children and locking them up in apartments.
She facilitated on who is an advocacy, what is advocacy and the need for every caregiver to be an advocate. She also thought the participants what is inclusion and the need for inclusion of persons with disabilities in schools and other places.
Emphasizing on the importance of inclusion, she said that it is the only solution to end discrimination. She cited example with a situation that all children irrespective of the status would be encouraged to learn in the school, perception of the peers of these children with disabilities about disabilities would be positive.
In her presentation, she also discussed the Red flags that parents, caregivers and teachers should look out for in the children to enable them discover earlier any disability for early intervention.
Some of the Red Flags that she mentioned were No Big smiles or other warn, joyful expressions from a child within six months or thereafter, No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions between the child and the mother at the age nine months, No babbling coming from a child at 12months, No back-and-forth gestures such as pointing, showing, reaching or waving from a child by 12months, No words by 16 months, No meaningful, two-word phrases (not including imitating or repeating) by 12 months, Any loss of speech, babbling or social skills at any age, Repetitive behaviours like flapping of hands, spinning objects, rocking, lining up objects, Covers ears for no obvious reason, Difficulty Sleep, Poor Attention and Concentration, Cannot Read or Write for age, No eye contact, Prefers to be left alone, Over sensitivity to textures, smells, sounds, Strong resistance to change in routine, Indifferent to others, Thinks in a rigid way, Have difficulty interpreting emotions/feelings/expressions of others and body language, Laughing and crying for no reason and Fixation on a single object/activity.
Nkechi Onyeje presented Myths about disabilities where she talked about the society perceive children with disabilities as a punishment to the parents, or that they are paying for the sins they committed in the previous world, see the children as if they are not human beings. She gave example of children that have cerebral palsy whom her parents were advised to take her to the river, give her food there and she will turn to snake and go into the water as if she is not a human.
She also stated that the children with disabilities are also see as burden which have led to some mothers abandoning or even poisoning their children with disabilities to have them out of their way.
Agbo Chris, Obiora, the Executive Director, The Qualitative Magazine, shared with the participants about a child with disability whose parents are using the proceeds of his begging to sponsor the education of his siblings and when the father was queried about it, he said that is the only usefulness of the child.
Mr. Chris also used himself to illustrate the need for parents to support their children with disabilities. He told a brief story on how the support of his parents at his early age helped to get him to where he is today. He cautioned the parents that have been hiding the children with disabilities and urged them to give equal opportunities to all their children with a little extra support to their children with disabilities.
Confidence Osagie, a participant, appreciated the initiative and called on the organizers to extend the sensitization to churches because in her church, she has been surprised as a Sunday school teacher, she has not been able to see much of children with disabilities in the classes and she know for sure that they are existing but it is most likely their parents are hiding them. She therefore, urged the organizers to reach out to the heads of churches and solicit for time to speak with the women in the church. She was optimistic that such a message in the church would go a long way towards cultivating positive attitude to children with disabilities by the parents/ caregivers.
Another participant, Felicia Johnson, in a similar vein offered to lead the way to her church, urged the organizers to come and meet her parish priest. She also offered to link the organizers to some traditional leaders around Kurudu so that the rural women would be reached as well.
She also said that the sessions have been an eye opener for her because she now understood somethings that she has not been doing so well in taking care of her grandchild who have disability. She also said that this knowledge is very important for all mothers because the rate at which mothers have been misled over years is alarming and it is because they are ignorant of the main condition of their children disabilities and how to take care and ability to discover earlier for early intervention.
