It hurts, when you discriminate against our children- Parents of Children with Special Needs

by Agbo Chris

To mark the World Children’s Day, The Engraced ones (an NGO, prayer support and advocacy initiative with the main purpose of rallying round one another as parents of these children and to sensitize the public about their condition while advocating for better health, education and good living condition of vulnerable children) organized an event to celebrate children with special needs. The theme of the event was Inclusion; the crave of the Special Need Child.

The event that took in Abuja at the weekend was well attended by some schools(Deo Gratias College Garki-Abuja, Fruitful Vine Academy Nassarawa State, LEA Primary School Tudun Wada-Nassarawa State, Royal Breed Academy Kurudu-Abuja, and Atari Primary Nassarawa State), members of the group(mostly parents of the children with special needs), their friends and partners.

The event featured exciting programmes such as Debate(It was won by LEA Primary School Tudun Wada-Nassarawa State and the topic was Admission of a child living special needs into a mainstream school is not beneficial to the society), Drama, Poetry all performed by children and remarkably the induction of young people into Engraced Club which was initiated to as a target of raising a generation of young ambassadors/advocates for the children with special need who are referred to as Engraced Children by the group. There were goodwill messages from friends and partners of the group and all their messages were tailored towards more and persistent attention to the Engraced Children.

The founder of the group Mrs Biby Yinkere in her message pointed out that the theme of the event (inclusion; the crave of the special Child’) was chosen because the parents of these engraced children have observed the isolation of their children in all sphere of lives. In education, there is no provision for these children and most of the schools in Nigeria are not inclusive. In healthcare, the National Health insurance Scheme (NHIS) do not have any package towards addressing peculiar needs of these Engraced Children. Religion is not left out of it, most settings in Churches and Mosques are not structured to carry along and address the spiritual needs of Engraced children.

she informed other young ones that as parents, they are hurt when they refused to play with their engraced children and even when they call them derogatory names and make derogatory comments on them. She urged the young ones at the event to always speak up for the engraced ones and help them make progress. She went further to urge the parents and teachers at the event to work together and also take responsibility of understanding and helping these engraced children to push through their challenges and limitations.

Finally, she called on the government, civil society, other critical stakeholders and `well-meaning individuals to work in one accord towards providing an enabling environment for the engraced children to thrive especially now that we have disability rights act, let government implement it fully. With your support, inclusive friendship, affordable special and inclusive education and healthcare can be achieved.

The Engraced Children are largely children living with cerebral palsy, autism, and other intellectual disabilities.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE EVENT PICTURES: