We are delighted that, with your help, the lead therapist at our Moldovan partner, Rain Kids, has been able to start her studies to develop her skills in working with autistic children. A particular focus of Ana’s traininng has been early intervention with young children aged between 12 and 48 months. We all know how vital these early years are for child development. Providing early support can make a great difference to an autistic child’s communication skills, their behaviour and relationships in the family. Rain Kids are finding that more families are coming to them with their concerns at this early stage, so it is very positive that our colleagues now feel better equipped to help them.
Many of the stories in this issue are about the difference your donations are making to disabled young people. We have Ilya, who is suprising his mother by making great progress even at the age of 27. We have news from Rain Kids in Chişinău, Moldova, who are benefitting from training for a key member of staff.
Our Christmas appeal this year is to help Adelina and other children who like her have special needs in Calarasi, Moldova. Can you help us raise £5,000 to fund a speech therapist and a special needs teacher for one year?
Adelina (on the left in the picture) is 9 years old and has Down Syndrome. She struggles with language and communication, but these difficulties don’t stop her from being eager to express herself and trying to make herself understood. She loves music and will arrange the other children in a circle while she pretends to play the guitar or claps along with her favourite songs. The children watch her and even applaud at the end of the song.
This year our Christmas appeal aims to raise £5,000 to pay for a speech therapist and a special needs teacher to support children like Adelina. Read on and you will find out how the team at The Wish Centre are helping Adelina flourish.
Five-year-old Alex lives in Chişinău with his family. The family turned to the Rain Kids Centre when it became clear that Alex was developmentally delayed. Their ambitions are simple, and ones most of the parents share: “I wanted Alex to start talking, eat independently, dress and undress by himself, to be more autonomous, to socialize.”
The staff at Rain Kids are very motivated to help the children in their care reach these goals. Last year, we helped them by providing supervision from an experienced practitioner from Romania. Now, we are funding Rain Kids’ lead therapist, Ana Cislaru, to raise her qualifications so she can offer training and supervision to her 8 colleagues.
Since we started working together, The Rain Kids Centre’s goal has been to improve the quality of the therapy they are able to offer children with developmental disabilities, such as autism. St Gregory’s has been funding supervision by an experienced therapist from Romania. She has visited to observe the work of the centre and provide training sessions.
Our May newsletter is out now, including a round up of our news from Moldova, Georgia and Russia. You will see how your donations are being used to support Luisa, who found herself homeless in Tbilisi, and Vika in St Petersburg, whose mother died. We report on our colleagues who are teaching others how to adapt books for people with a range of disabilities, and providing the only therapy available for children with special needs in Călărași, Moldova.
An urgent problem we have this year is helping Sunflower recover from a fire at their summer camp base. This was caused last year by a fault at a local substation. Sunflower have managed to get the lights back on, and have also fundraised locally to replace damaged kitchen equipment. What they now need help with is transport both for their new equipment and for their volunteers, and food to sustain the volunteers as they make the site ready for this year’s camp.
Check out our appeal page if you would like to help.
The journey from Chişinău to Călărași was just over an hour to The Wish Centre for disabled and autistic children and youths. This centre is a beacon for many local families who are raising children with special needs. Currently it is the only place in the region they can turn to for help and guidance.
Eugenia, who is just over 30, saw her life take a dramatic turn a decade ago when her sister lost her parental rights, and Eugenia found herself looking after her niece Ana, a baby with Down syndrome.
In the last couple of months our partners at The Wish in Moldova have been supporting 18 disabled children. Each one of them has a personalised care plan and has benefitted from speech therapy, ocupational therapy and specialist education to help them develop their thinking skills. Two thirds of the families come from rural areas. These areas are already poor, but having a disabled child usually makes it impossible for both parents to work. When a child isn’t able to go to school someone has to look after them. Those who live in the countryside also find it harder to access all kinds of services. Where possible, The Wish provides free transport. Very sadly, they can no longer offer this to everyone who needs it, which means some families are missing out.
When Liviu was a baby he was very agitated. At a very early age, his parents noticed that he wasn’t starting to babble like other babies. As a toddler, he didn’t respond to his own name and seemed to be in his own little world. He would often have melt-downs. After some time, Liviu was diagnised with autism, a diagnosis which scared his mother.
Now Liviu is nearly five and he has been attending The Wish centre for a year. He has benefitted from speech therapy, occupational therapy, a psychologist and ABA therapy. At first he found it difficult to join in, but little by little he became comfortable with the staff. He stopped crying and started to be interested in the activities and to react to his name.
This year our Christmas appeal is in aid of The Wish, a Moldovan charity that is providing rare community support for children with disabilities in Moldova.
Ana’s story
Ana is eleven now, and she has been coming to The Wish since she was five. Ana had a difficult start in life. She used to live in the countryside with her mother, who is disabled, and her grandfather. After her grandfather died her mother couldn’t cope financially or practically. Fortunately, the wider family were able to help and Ana now lives in Călărași with her aunt.
Ana also has Down syndrome. Her aunt is working hard to try and meet her additional needs and brought her to The Wish. When she first joined aged five her language skills were poor, as well as her co-ordination and fine motor skills. The Wish provide her with a personalised programme of therapy including speech therapy. She also takes part in a whole range of activities, both educational activities and social ones. Ana is integrated into a local mainstream school, but she only attends two days a week. This makes The Wish’s support absolutely vital both for her and her family.
Ana is lucky in that in her aunt’s family she feels loved and important as a member of the family. Eugenia strives to educate her properly and to be her mother and close friend as well. The Wish supports her aunt and mother by teaching them about Down Syndrome and about some of the strategies and techniques they use to work effectively with Ana. They are fortunate to have formed a good team with her family – together they can give Ana much more support than either of them can alone.
How to donate today
We are delighted to see the progress that Ana has made, and to see her enjoying our group activities so much. It is very much for Ana, and other children like her, that we are appealing today. It is so important that Ana’s care is not interrupted, and so we are doing all we can to fill gaps in the local funding. Can you help us raise £4,300 by the end of the year so that we can continue to be there for Ana and her family (as well as 29 other children and young people)?
