The Brace Foundation on Friday in Lagos organised a workshop to deepen the knowledge of those caring for children with special needs in one way or the other. The workshop was aimed at improving the lives of children with special needs.
At the event held at Lekki, the Chairman of Brace Foundation, Dr Gabriel Ogbechie, said that the workshop had become necessary to increase the level of awareness as regards care for children with special needs.
The workshop had in attendance no fewer than 1,200 participants drawn from public and private sectors attended the workshop. They include parents, guardians, educators, caregivers, health workers, therapists, legal experts, clergymen and members of the Red Cross Society.
Ogbechie said there was need to educate the society more about the peculiarities of people with special needs.
“They are still human beings who the society needs to accept for who they are.” “Growing up, I saw children with special needs. We didn’t understand what special needs were, and they were maltreated by the society. Education has made us to understand that what the children actually had were special needs and nothing else,” he said.
He regretted that children with special needs struggled with learning and many other things.“We have seen children with special needs struggle in school and the larger society, and we felt that it is a space we can bring in resources through this workshop. This will help these children to live a better life, integrate better into the society and live a fulfilled life,” he added.
The workshop discussed speech therapy, art of communication, special needs, and navigating behavioural challenge, among others issues.
Earlier, the Executive Director of Brace Foundation, Dr Soibi Hephzibah, said that the foundation focused on education of children with special needs. She noted that it involved behavioural and occupational education.
In her remarks, the Vice Chairperson of the foundation, Mrs Godrey Ogbechie, said that all children had needs but some required special needs due to one challenge or the other.
“We want to make it easier for them to have supportive mechanisms that will help them to strive. Even the ones we term normal have needs but they are just different,” she said.
The Head of Lagos Preparatory School, Ikoyi, Lagos, Mrs Dipa Horsfall, who was a participant at the workshop, advised parents of children with special needs to give them more attention.
Horsfall urged the federal and state governments to do more to improve healthcare services for children with special needs to discourage taking them abroad for healthcare
