A GNA Feature by Hannah Awadzi
Accra, Sept. 24, GNA – A young man reached out
to me the other day, saying he wants to make an impact in the lives of children
with special needs.
He kept asking, “What can we donate to help
children with cerebral palsy,” instead of giving him an answer, I invited him over
for a conversation.
I asked him why he wanted to donate to
children with cerebral palsy and why he is into philanthropy since that is not
common with young Ghanaian men.
He said: “I had a friend who got paralyzed
suddenly, doctors said it was cerebral palsy, I really cannot connect the dots
on what the doctors are saying but it occurred to me that I could reach out to
people like my friend and help out.”
“I do not know how many of such people are
paralyzed and forced to beg on the street because of that, I want to make an
impact.”
I could see that the young man came with an
open heart and a clear intention but needed to know more about the category of
people he had chosen to help.
So I provoked him a bit, I asked him, that
supposing he donated bags of rice, bails of clothing, packs of diapers and
wipes and many other things and I call him after a few months to say that the
things are finished and I needed more what will he do.
He said, “I will be upset” then I asked again,
how do you expect me to do anything when you have committed yourself to supply
me with all I need till I die.
He seemed confused by my line of questioning
so I told him that I appreciated his commitment to support children with
special needs but it could be directed in a more productive and sustainable way
instead of just donating items to them.
The narrative on cerebral palsy in Ghana, most
of the time, has been “we are poor, we need food, we need diapers and the like…,”
it is mostly communication that is intended to draw pity to families raising
children with cerebral palsy with the aim of receiving handouts.
So the story has remained the same over the
years, “I gave birth to a child with cerebral palsy and I had to stop work and
take care of her, now I don’t have anything” and this and that, which to me is
not just pathetic but appalling.
Instead of working together to ensure that
there are policies in place that takes care of children with cerebral palsy in
the long term, many prefer being given some handouts, many are made to think
that there is nothing that can be done except to beg. In any case begging has
become a very lucrative business for some people in Ghana.
The other day someone pointed to me, a beggar
who had built a mansion out of his begging business, in fact many beggars on
the street are able to recruit able bodied young men and women to push them
under the scorching sun, it is very lucrative I learnt.
Anyway back to the old aged narrative, even in
Ghana, I have seen mothers of children with special needs who have made
tremendous impact.
One such mother is Mrs Serwaa Quainoo, who
started the Autism Awareness, Care and Training Centre, which provides training
and educational services to children with autism, in order for them to function
more effectively in society.
Aunty Serwaa, as she is affectionately called,
has made so much impact in terms of creating awareness on Autism, back in the
days and even now, I use to see her on TV talking about Autism.
Her organization serves many families raising
children with autism.
Another person who inspires me outside the
borders of Ghana is a lady by name Shona McDonalds, Mother of a lady with
cerebral palsy turned entrepreneur, because of her daughter.
She started an organization called ShonaQuip.
Shona, at the age of 19 had a daughter, Shelley, who was born with cerebral
palsy (CP). At the time the only wheelchairs available were for adults and even
these were only designed for temporary transportation within hospitals.
“Shelley was given a foam-padded folded cardboard insert for her pram with a
large piece of webbing to tie her in. I learned that once CP children outgrew
their prams the option was to tie them into hospital wheelchairs,” she
explains.
Refusing to accept what was available,
McDonald poured over books on CP sent from a cousin in the UK. What she noticed
were the wheelchairs. “There was an amazing photo of a chair from Sweden so I
asked my cousin to buy the motor and wheels from England and bring them over,”
Parts in hand, she approached the Biomedical Engineering Department at UCT
where, working from a photograph, she and Mike Price built Shelley a chair.
The motorised chair solved Shelley’s mobility
challenges so McDonald moved on to other issues, developing communication cards
so that Shelley could tell her parents what she wanted, and modifying toys so
she could play. Being involved in parental support groups, it was only a matter
of time before people started requesting similar products for their disabled
children, and a business was born in McDonald’s home.”
I think that our needs should lead us to
innovations, inventions and solutions and not the other way round.
The Special Mothers Project an advocacy and
awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy is starting training seminars
for various stakeholders in Ghana to advocate, deepen knowledge and create a
change.
Our first training seminar scheduled to take
place mid-October is on the theme: “Entrepreneurship Opportunities in the
Special Needs World – Changing the narrative”
Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Executive Director of the
Special Mothers Project said “I think that the lack of support services and
systems for families raising children with cerebral palsy is what pushes many
into begging and pity partying.”
Ghana will join the rest of the world to
celebrate World Cerebral Palsy Day on 6 October, the day celebrates the
achievement of persons with cerebral palsy and their care givers.
Mrs Awadzi said “it is about time we change
the narrative on cerebral palsy in Ghana, we want to make cerebral palsy a
“celebrity”