Foundation drums support for children with special needs

Foundation drums support for children with special needs
By Olasunkanmi Onifade
Children
Abuja, Jan. 10, 2019 (NAN) The Coordinator, Our Lady of Guadalupe (OLG) Health Foundation and Autism Centre, Mrs Chioma Onyeanu, has called on relevant stakeholders to support children living with special needs to enable them contribute their quota to national development.
Onyeanu made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
She identified such special needs as developmental delays, medical conditions, psychiatric and congenital conditions that require accommodation so children can reach their potentials.
“Poverty related factors were one of the most prominent barriers inhibiting families, communities participating in the training and education of persons with special needs in the country.
“For instance, in our high ways and streets today, one cannot but notice countless number of both `fit’ and `unfit’ children and adults begging for alms.
“A family dealing with developmental delays will have different concerns from one dealing with chronic illness. These families will have different anxieties than ones dealing with mental illness, learning problems or behavioural challenges,’’ she said.
Onyeanu said people with special needs face different challenges apart from the birth condition which could be physical, technological, systemic, financial or attitudinal, or due to government failure to make available the needed accommodation and infrastructural provisions.
She said giving birth to a child who has any form of disorder is often seen as a taboo, saying it is a cultural belief barrier.
“The child is seen as a reincarnation of a long-dead relative who has come back to punish the parents for a certain misdeed.
“This fear or ideology instantly makes the parents regard the child as an abnormally and often leads to discrimination,” Onyeanu said.
She however said the family was the first and basic institution in our culture and the primary place in which children learn to interact with their environment.
Onyeanu said the very important position of the family in the development of the individual cannot be quantified.
She said families and communities should have a change in attitude towards persons with special needs, saying that the community with most of the superstitious beliefs, values and customs that powerfully affect the persons with special needs negatively are rooted in the communities.
Onyeanu however underscored the need to have parents support groups where they can share their stories and proffer solutions.
“Talking to other parents, especially parents who live in the area can become a true personal connection, is essential to the coping ability of these parents,” she advised. (NAN)
OEO/AZA/MST
Edited by Polycarp Auta/Muhammad Suleiman Tola