TQM report,
Culture is the way of life of particular set of people and it reflects in the dressing, foods, dances etc and every culture is unique and beautiful. They are also reflection of God’s blessings and goodness.
It was in the spirit of celebrating culture and using it as a unifying factor, building bond among children without disabilities and children with disabilities and their parents that Safehost International Initiative on Friday 11th June, 2021 in their school located at Kurudu, Army Post-Service Estate organized a Cultural festival with the theme: Celebrating different colours of God.
The Proprietor of the school, Mrs. Ngozi Belolisa, in her opening speech said that God loves every culture and culture should be a unifying factor not means for division. She also said that the aim of the event is to showcase the beauty of our different cultures and also internalizing culture in the mind of these children and provide opportunity for the children to have a feel of other cultures.
She further described the 2021 event as a special one because parents of the children were involved and it was made to be a contest and it is going to be a memorable day in the minds of the children.
She urged everyone present to feel free, go round and test the foods made by other cultural groups.
Safehost International Initiative is one of the few inclusive schools in the FCT and in their usual practice, children with cerebral palsy, downsydrome, autism etc who are in their facility fully participate in all the activities of the event. The event featured dances of different types which these children with disabilities danced alongside with children without disabilities based on the cultural group, there were cultural groups which was chosen based on geopolitical zones. The four different zones were represented at the event and they are North Central, South West(Yoruba), South South and South East. It was a contest between these four group which a winner emerged from the assessment by the visitors using criteria such their presentation, dressing, decoration, organization and number. South West won the contest edged out South east with just one mark.
The groups got prizes but the winner’s prize was accompanied with a trophy and it is expected that by next year, other groups would come more prepared.
A parent to one of the children with intellectual disability Mrs. Diana Iyagba whose child Boma Iyagba has developmental delay speaking to TQM said that the decision to have parents playing part in the cultural festival of this year is a welcome development because it afforded the parents to bond more and it was exciting seeing our children with disabilities play and perform activities alongside their counterparts without disabilities.
Speaking further, she was very grateful to Safehost for transforming the life of her daughter, according to her, when Boma was brought to Safehost, she could not speak at all but now she has started talking and there have been a lot of improvement overall in her life. She also told TQM that Safehost is taking going by the love they show to these children especially the children with disabilities. In fact, they show care to these children even more than what the parents can offer to these children. They don’t segregate these children; it is difficult to spot the different in their classes because they are all treated equal with special attention to children with disabilities.
She advised parents to seek help early whenever to find out any form of impairment in their child, early intervention is always going to assist the child regain some level of stabilization, the fact that your child is experiencing an impairment does not mean that he or she would amount to nothing in life, the child can get better and become great in life. Â
