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Saturday Jul 10, 2010

Sinethemba Special Needs Care Unit

"In a lot of African countries getting a child with a disability is considered to be a curse" *

 It is this cultural attitude, which makes development of special needs funding in Africa of such importance.

Along with economical and legislative restrictions traditional attitudes towards having a child with disabilities has meant a troubled past in the area.

Sinethemba Special Care Unit, is a school for special needs children up to the age of eighteen, I chose the placement because disability is something that I had never worked with and sometimes is too easy for people to ignore, this was highlighted to me when it was ranked least popular out of the 40 projects in South Africa offered by the company. It's unfair because the children I met whilst I was there are as equally deserving as any other child.

The project was run by a previous volunteer after seeing the need for progression of special needs funding and availability of resources in South Africa, the school is a credit to her, it receives a high level of interest from various companies and has a lot of funding as a result. Despite wanting to learn more about special needs during the project, I never got around to it, because I spent all my time running around after the most energetic children I have known. There were so many characters; Leo who would pull your hair, eat sand, and get away with anything because it was impossible to be mad at him, Inathi who we once found underneath his wheelchair, another boy had been pushing him around and it had toppled over, he was sat smiling, I couldn't believe he hadn't cried, he just found it funny. Sesethu, eight going on eighty, shouting at you in Koso, pointing her finger at you in frustration annoyed that you were stood smiling at her in amusement.

The hardest part about working at the school was the limited effect that I could have on the children's learning, when other volunteers from placements in mainstream school would come home and talk about how they had taught the children numbers and colours, I would be thankful if the children could remember and pronounce my name the next day.  It took me a while to be grateful for the little steps that the children took whilst I was there. My favorite moment was during my last week, when a young boy at the project said his name for the first time to me during a horse riding trip. It may seem like a small step but it was big for Bukho. It made me smile.

* Quoted from http://www.isec2000.org.uk/abstracts/papers_g/grol_1.htm

Posted by Natalie ( 6:31 PM )
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