Hope for children with special needs

A WOMAN from Ondangwa is appealing to parents whose children have special needs to make use of special schools to advance their children’s education.

Victoria Joel (27) has been trying to raise awareness among northern communities that children with learning disabilities can still develop well with the right assistance.

Joel always had a passion for advocating and assisting people living with disabilities, and formed the Circle of Hope Youth Group in 2011, aimed at tackling special needs; education to children living with disabilities.

In 2017, she underwent training at the Senior Experten Service (SES) of Germany, a leading organisation for experts and executives who are either retired, or taking some time off work.

She also attended training focusing on special needs education at the Autism Centre at Swakopmund, where she was later employed as a teacher assistant.

“Working as an assistant there opened up my mind on how I can make a positive permanent change in children’s lives, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“The autism centre sent me on various training programmes such as understanding the autism spectrum, teaching children with autism, and an introduction to Makaton sign language and inclusive education, conducted by specialists from South Africa in collaboration with the Autism Association of Namibia,” she said in an interview with The Namibian.

Joel later relocated from Swakopmund to northern Namibia in 2018, where she volunteered to work at a public special school at Outapi which enrols children with learning difficulties.

“However, I found that the school did not enrol children with autism, but only those with learning difficulties. The school also had a limited number of intakes due to the ratio required for a special school. This, however, did not stop desperate parents with children living with autism from applying to get them enrolled, albeit without success.

This motivated Joel to establish the Circle of Hope Private Academy (Coha) at Omashaka, Ondangwa, in January which caters for children with special needs such as autism, Down’s syndrome and intellectual disorders.

The school offers early intervention classes for toddlers, as well as pre-primary pupils from five to seven years, and primary pupils from eight to 14 years. The academy also offers basic pre-vocational subjects for 15-21-year-olds, which includes auto- mechanics, clothing and fashion design, hospitality, and joinery.

After The Namibian published an article about Joel last year, she received calls from desperate parents from as far as Opuwo, Grootfontein, Ruacana and Okahao, which motivated the new project. She said the school, however faced a lot of challenges this year, which resulted in only two pupils remaining out of the 10 who were enrolled at the beginning of the year.

“We faced rejection and misunderstanding by the community. We were even called a school for “omalayi”, meaning school for retarded children. This forced parents to withdraw their interest because of the stigma. We immediately saw the need of awareness within the community, and in partnership with the Ondangwa Private Hospital through an occupational therapist, explained in very basic terms the medical definition of autism,” she explained.

Awareness was done for the Omashaka community in Oshiwambo. Lifeskills teachers, school counsellors, principals of public and private schools within the Oshana region were also educated.

The school currently operates in a house with four rooms, but managed to acquire land from the Ondangwa Town Council for a bigger building. Building plans have been completed, and fundraising activities are planned to generate funds for the new building project through a gala dinner, and selling shopping handbags, amongst other initiatives.

The co-founders consist of two members who used their own savings as capital to start the project. Pupils are taught by two qualified teachers and one teacher assistant.

“We had accepted that Prince [my son] may never be able to go to school, but Coha made a tremendous difference. He gained skills that we thought he would never be able to master. It is still a process, but a progressive one,” said a parent, Karle Kambonde.

Parents pay N$1 700 per child per month for five days a week. The school teaches an intellectual impaired curriculum, and a learning support curriculum by the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) and Autism Framework in the United Kingdom.