Faith Montessori School on Saturday organised a family day at the Efua Sutherlands Children’s Park for children with learning disabilities.
The event also sought to use fun games to foster friendship with differently abled people, members of the society, community organisations, businesses and individuals.
Mrs Amoo-Gottfried, Co-Founder and Director of Faith Montessori School, said the activities were part of the school’s 25th Anniversary celebrations and that children with a learning disability deserved some love to be part of the yearlong celebration.
“We have invited our friends from New Horizon and Dzorwulu Special schools to join us to help promote an understanding of children with learning disabilities and encourage support for their well being”, said Mrs Amoo-Gottfried.
The event was on the theme: “Demonstrating God’s love to children with learning disabilities” while the Anniversary was anchored by the theme: “Celebrating God’s faithfulness, a remarkable past, a glorious future”.
She expressed the hope that the Children’s Park will in the future have features and facilities like playgrounds with equipment that allows children of all ages and abilities to play together.
Mrs Jocelyn Adobea, Educational Coordinator of New Horizon Special School at Cantoments and Mr Kenneth Kwame Kuko, Housemaster of Dzorwulu Special School spoke with the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
Mrs Adobea said the cost of training children with a learning disability was huge and called for public private partnership in managing such schools.
She also suggested to the government to bear the cost of training and hiring of special education teachers for those schools since it hindered the smooth running of the schools.
Mr Kuko expressed worry that parents often over protect children with learning disabilities by even locking them saying “this is a clear violation of their fundamental human rights”.
He attributed such behaviours to strong social stigma, rejection, name calling and superstitious beliefs associated with having children with deformities.
Faith Montessori school, co-founded by Mr and Mrs Oswald Amoo-Gottfried, uses a multi-sensory approach to education and the curriculum encourages children to learn at their own optimum level.
