Parents of children with autism and cerebral palsy continue to face stigmatization in Ghana as many consider such children as evil throwing such parents into a state of psychological trauma.
Their children’s conditions also place them in a very tight financial situation.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. People with ASD may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention.
The disorder is regarded as evil, especially in rural Ghana and such children are mostly considered as taboo children.
Such children as well as their parents face constant stigmatization and victimization in various forms.
One such parent who has suffered severe stigmatization is Bernice Amoah, mother of 12-year-old Lawrencia Agyeiwaa with ASD who shared her experience with Metro News.
She says it became difficult for her to even have an accommodation space rented out to her as a result of her child’s condition.
According to her, failure to succumb to pressure from her own family members to terminate the life of her child caused her to be ejected from her own family’s home.
The reluctance of accommodation owners to rent out a place to her and her child as well as constant stigmatization from their co-tenants presented her with no option but to dwell in kiosks and even that she has had to be relocating from one community to another.
Sadly, she was also abandoned by her husband up to the condition of the child placing all the burden to cater for Lawrencia on her shoulders.
Beatrice describes her situation as psychologically traumatizing.
It has taken the benevolence of Joseph Magnus Martey and his Joberg Foundation to provide a fully funded accommodation for Beatrice and her daughter.
According to Magnus, the gesture is to protect children with autism and cerebral palsy conditions and anticipates providing even more decent accommodation for such children and their parents.
In the Central Region, many such children are mostly abandoned completely by their parents. Parents who do not yield to the demands to have such children killed at birth also find it difficult to live in communities peacefully. It is mostly not practicable for such children to have access to education.
For the last 20 years, Rev Jehu Appiah and his wife who worked as a therapist for children with disabilities have been providing special care for children with special needs at the Mephibosheth Training Center established at Gomoa Ankamu.
Apart from providing the physical needs of these special children, they are also provided with formal education, and some of them making strides in academia.
Rev. Jehu Appiah entreats the public to disregard the myths surrounding such children. Instead of the long-held belief by some people that children with autism are dull, he rather describes them as smart children.
The home relies on donations and benevolence from local and international philanthropists. One of such donors is Patience Martey a health worker. She’s called on other individuals to also render help to such children.
Loretta Afleh, a midwife, however, provides some basic tips about how to care for children with cerebral palsy and autism as well as prevent them from danger.
She intimates that they are normal human beings and must be regarded as such.
By: Akwasi Addo | Metrotvonlonline.com | Ghana
