By Kate Tolhurst, Special Needs Coordinator
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God.” – 2Corinthians 4v7.
Special Needs staff and kids.
If you were to visit our new class at Kasana Children`s Centre for children with disabilities, perhaps initially you would be overwhelmed by the physical and mental ‘brokenness’ of the children who attend. However, if you were to allow yourself to stay for a while and interact with them, I can guarantee that you would soon become captivated by each one of these ‘treasures.’
We are almost coming to the end of our first term, and as a staff team, we have been delighted to have seen the potential in each child begin to emerge.
All but two of the eight children have been attending mainstream classes on a regular basis. Fifteen year old Isima impressed our P5 teacher with his ability to dig in the school garden; apparently he dug the largest area out of all the class! Eight-year-old Kakulu has made many friends in the pre-school and has been surprising everyone with his ability to recognize shapes and colors!
As a whole class, we have enjoyed many different activities including baking, various art and craft activities and getting out and about becoming familiar with where different people live and work.
Perhaps the most exciting transformation we have witnessed has been of an eight-year-old girl called Allen who was brought to us last December weighing just 5.5kg (12 lbs). She has gradually put on weight
Playing with bells.
and started eating solid food. She has also learned to sit up, to interact with others and to reach out and explore things placed in front of her. When we visited her home last month, we were pleased to see how her many brothers and sisters now play with her and to hear from her mother that her uncle and grandparents are no longer ashamed of her. They are now willing to let her mother bring her outside and allow her to be seen.
We also have much to praise God for concerning our work in the local community. Our monthly community outreach
Parents of special needs children attending the monthly discussion time.
sessions have become more and more popular and we now have a large group of regular attendees and a growing number of new children registering each month (six in April!). In March, a nurse from Kiwoko hospital came and spoke to the parents/carers about food and nutrition, and in April a member of staff here who has faced many trials as a Ugandan albino lead a discussion with them on the difficulties and discrimination they face as they bring up children with disabilities. They concluded this discussion by looking up verses in scripture about how precious their children are to our Father God.
Our prayer as we continue to minister to these children and their families, is that we would be challenging people,
Learning to use a spoon.
(including ourselves,) not to judge people according to their appearance or ability but to see each individual through God`s eyes and remember that every one of us is precious to him.
“ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view….” 2 Corinthians 5 v 16.
HOW U CAN HELP:
• Pray for us (for specific prayer requests, please sign up as suggested below!)
• Sign up for our regular news/prayer letters. Contact us through our website to do so.
• Sponsor one of the children in our class or the Special Needs Programme in general. If you are interested, contact our sponsorship office.
• Help fund our new Special Needs Program classroom. It will be added on to the Primary School. We hope to be able to use it in -2012. Estimated cost $20-25,000.
• Make a one-time donation to the programme;