Special Needs Program

The Garden City Special school for the intellectually disabled is located at Asokore-Mampong Municipality in the Ashanti Region and was founded in 1977. It is one of the few live in special schools in Ghana which admits students, children and young adults with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, microcephaly and other genetic disorders. Additionally some students suffer from physical deformities and a motor-speech disorder called Dysarthria that prevents them from having control over their tongue. You will see some children with bowed legs and irregular pupils and iris which causes vision loss. Lack of government medical funding to schools like this one, results is many conditions being misunderstood and undiagnosed. There is a medical nurse on site, but without help from appropriate specialists, the medical care is basic. The majority of their over 190 residences suffer from a combination of both physical and intellectual disability so the burden of care is quite large.

The school is a grand property. The kids have their dormitories on site, a large playground, a clinic, a kitchen, eating hall, classrooms, a sensory room, gym and administrative offices. There are a large team of staff that do everything from waking them in the morning, helping those who need help to shower themselves, get dressed, brush their teeth, eat breakfast and that’s all before class even begins! Some of the children, despite being older in age, are incontinent so the staff must keep them in diapers and avidly monitor their personal hygiene.

The school has a large grassy area with trees for shade. Here they do sports and games usually on Wednesdays, and even spend some calming Fridays sitting in the grass coloring, which is known to be a favorite time for a lot of these kids.

The students are given social and vocational training and taught life skills which is aimed at making them economically independent. Vocational classes include beadwork and jewelry making, leather works, tie and dye, woodwork and kitchen skills. The school sells these finished goods to raise money for more materials and supplies. Some goods include necklaces, bracelets, table runners, tie dyed fabrics, purses, pencils cases, wooden stools and small tables, key chains, sandals and door mats. It a perfect place to get some meaningful souvenirs to take home. You will even see some of the children’s work at The Sunshine Volunteers Organization residence!

The school utilizes many different physical therapy techniques with the students as well. They have equipment such as walkers, exercise balls, stationary bicycles, elliptical, parallels bars, wall ladder, puzzles and building blocks. They also do exercise work on strengthening the facial and tongue muscles for those suffering from Dysarthria. There is a large sensory room with string lights, padded walls for safe play, a water sensory column with floating balls, dexterity fidgets, lots of stuffed animals and soft blankets. Any volunteer with physical therapy background is welcome to spread their knowledge to the on site staff and fellow volunteers.

The work at this school is plentiful and never ending. Volunteers can help the students through arts and craft lessons, practicing concentration with the eye, physical exercises for limb mobility, ICT and other outdoor activities. With nearly 200 students you can imagine the amount of clothes that need to be washed; volunteers help with the washing and take the clothes down from the line and fold them. The kitchen is a great place to spend some time helping with food preparation and washing dishes. When meal times come around the volunteers help portion out the meals and offer assistance to those who need help eating. Volunteers can work with the teachers to prepare and execute lessons . Many of the classes focus their lessons on basic skills such as identifying objects by their pictures, learning animal sounds and matching them to the appropriate animals, basic life skills like identifying kitchen utensils and their uses, identifying foods and methods of preparing them. More advanced students will need help with reading and writing, math and science.

You will find the children loving and very excited. Some struggle with boundaries and personal space but there is always a staff member or a watchful classmate in range to help if it get a little too intense. In your first days at placement you will be accompanied by a Sunshine Volunteers Coordinator who helps you settle in, get familiar with your program and the tasks at hand. The best part about this program is how happy the students are and how welcoming all of the staff is. Although some days will be tougher then others, you will go home each day with a great sense of pride and accomplishment. Volunteers arrive at placement around 9am and work 4-6hour shifts at their own discretion.