Four years ago, Nandesh Nandeo was asleep in bed when he was burnt by firecrackers in a freak accident during the Diwali celebrations at Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice. He was only a year old at the time and the accident left him with a deformed foot and damaged fingers on one hand. After two surgeries, including skin grafting, he is now able to walk and run like other children.
Nandesh is one of the success stories for the United Women for Special Children Club (UWSC), which has been helping children with special needs to fulfil their potential by providing much needed resources.
According to UWSC’s Immediate Past President Ann Geer, the organisation focuses on educational, recreational, life training and welfare assistance. The UWSC was formed in the late 1980s by Natalia Heyroid, of the then European Economic Commission and a group of Spanish-speaking women. In 1993, it was officially registered with the Friendly Societies as a non-profit organisation and has been expanding its reach.
Geer explained that the UWSC tries to assist children who have been identified with special needs, through its ongoing fund-raising activities and the help of its committed supporters. Nandesh was helped as a result of partnerships with a paediatrician and bone surgeon in private practice who waived all fees, as well as an overseas based Guyanese and her colleagues.
Up to November 2000, the two main projects of the club have been the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre and assisting the Special Needs School at Diamond, on the East Bank of Demerara. In 1996, the organisation rebuilt the benab of the Ptolemy Reid Centre, to better accommodate the students.
The Diamond school, which currently has 70 students between the ages of 5 and 18, was temporarily housed in the Vishnu Youth Centre building at Grove. In 1996, a $12M facility was built in the Diamond Primary School compound, for which SIMAP provided $11M and the UWSC contributed the remainder. In 2000, an additional sum of $1.2M was spent to rehabilitate the building.
According to Geer, as part of its continued commitment to the school, the UWSC provides weekly transportation and trainers’ fees to allow students to attend aqua therapy sessions at Colgrain Swimming Pool.
The UWSC has also been assisting other special needs schools around the country. The David Rose School for the Handicapped has approximately 140 students, with a daily attendance record of between 100 and120 students. The UWSC supplements the school’s lunch time feeding programme with a monthly contribution of raw materials. The UWSC has also been helping the New Amsterdam Special School since 2000, provided monthly allowances, including stipends for the cook, handyman and two full-time teachers. Transportation and meals are also provided for children in need. A new swing set and basketball hoop for the recreational needs of the students have been provided and the organisation has also helped in raising the level of the front yard of the school, which flooded frequently.
The UWSC also hosts annual Christmas parties for students at the three schools. It maintains its presence by way of member coordinators, who visit the schools regularly.
The Open Doors Centre receives aid from the UWSC on a needs basis. Since September 2007, four students from the Diamond school have been enrolled at the institution, three of whom will learn information technology and the other electrical installation. Four years ago, a student from the New Amsterdam Special Needs School was sponsored by the UWSC to attend the Open Doors Centre for a year to learn joinery, and is now employed in Berbice.
Meanwhile, the Linden Care Foundation, a non-profit organisation addressing the needs of orphans and children of HIV/AIDS, is another project that receives aid from the UWSC. In 2006, in a partnership effort, the Rotary Club enclosed a portion of foundation’s existing facility to house a half-way home. The UWSC provided the furnishings which include dormitory rooms, a reading room and a computer centre.
Geer said the UWSC’s ongoing commitment requires at the minimum $2M per year. Major fund-raising activities are a costume dinner/dance, pre-Halloween fun fair and Valentine’s Day baskets. They also sell hats, tote bags and cookbooks.
