What an incredible day Monday was, Esther’s first ever day at school. At 8 years of age Esther has never been able to access education due to her inability to walk. Esther has Cerebral palsy affecting her physical ability, but she is a bright young girl who likes to interact with others, has the ability to communicate her needs, was working on her ABC’s and 123’s at home and was desperate to go to school.
For the past 6 months, Family First have sponsored Esther to access regular physiotherapy at home, provided a range of specialist equipment (including a wheelchair, standing frame and AFO’s.) Esther visits our centre for sensory and interactive play with her Family First Friends. Esther was making massive improvements and is now able to sit independently and whilst we have been working on standing re-education, we really felt that Esther needed access to education as well as Physiotherapy.
Our good friend and child psychiatrist, Nakita, who worked in Kumasi for one year introduced us to a fantastic school called Little Haven. Little Haven is an inclusive School for children aged 1-10 years of age. Being an inclusive school means that it includes both mainstream and Special Educational Needs (SEN) children and caters for a variety of individual needs. The school offers a range of therapeutic interventions; children who need (Esther) access a daily physiotherapy programme and have regular sessions with an Occupational Therapist and Speech and Language Therapist. The team of therapists and teachers work together to create Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and monitor each child’s progression. Little Haven’s Headteacher, Kate, told me on our first meeting that she is “accountant by training, teacher by passion” and this is certainly reflected within the school where every child is a valued pupil and given every opportunity to flourish. Since arriving in Kumasi, I have been working at Little Haven school to offer support with individual interventions and developing staff training. Nakita and I could see that if Esther (and eventually Pearl too) could go to this school, she would flourish.
On Monday we enrolled Esther at Little Haven and what a day it was, Esther was ecstatic to be starting school and couldn’t stop grinning. In assembly they sung her a welcome song to which she clapped along and gave her new friends high fives. Throughout the week she has settled in very quickly, she knows the names of each of her classmates and calls them over to play and she just loves to engage in any school activity!
Little Haven is a private school with additional provisions and one of the only schools in Kumasi accepting children in wheelchairs and we really need your support to raise funds for her school fees.
Each term (3 terms in a year) costs 4,000ghc/£600, this price includes:
- Small group education
- 1:1 feeding and handling
- Breakfast, lunch and snacks
- Daily Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy
- Transport – school bus
- School uniforms, materials and extra curriculum activities
You can make monthly donations or one off donations using the donate button on our website – www.familyfirstghana.com/esther
Or you can email us if you would like to set up a direct bank transfer:
This school will be an incredible opportunity for Esther, giving her the opportunity to thrive within a safe school environment and if you become one of her sponsors you will receive regular updates on her education and development. Please don’t hesitate to get into contact with any questions and please share amongst all your friends and family!
“Every child can learn”… “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn”
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