Mrs Taiwo Oparemi is the brains behind the Treasures Delight International Centre, which specialises on children and person with disability. In this interview SEYI SOKOYA, Oparemi speaks on why she and her husband are passionate in raising the hopes of the physically challenge persons and what it takes to adequately run a suitable therapy for special children. Excerpts:
At what point did you discover your passion for helping children with special needs?
The passion developed naturally, because I have love for children, especially those with special needs, though I studied Special Education even at my NCE days. My degree and my current Masters programme specialises on Special Education. Over times, I found myself impacting on children around me, especially the children with special needsand at the end of the day the passion became a reality. Importantly, this is not a sole responsibility; it is a call of my husband and I. We are committed to redefine the lives of the special children. It is a collective responsibility in proving suitable platform for children with autism, ADHD, down syndrome, learning difficulties, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, among others, to enjoy good life despite their challenges, which they might overcome with time.
How has it been since you started?
God has been faithful to us. We discovered that no one was into the business when we wanted to start up in Ibadan. Our research at the University College Hospital (UCH), also confirmed that no one was into such. I was worried that the children in Ibadan, especially those with special needs are not getting the necessary help. So, we took it upon ourselves to start in order to give them privileges to enjoy life. We actually started in 2010, but nobody was doing therapy services. So, we decided to specialise on therapy services for children, especially those with speaking impediments. We are so passionate to transform the lives of these people with the services we have put in place such as educational therapy, individual evaluation programme, vocational therapy, physiotherapy section and applied behaviour. Also, we help process surgery for children with hole in the heart. It wasn’t as if there are no special schools, but our services have made us stand out among our contemporaries, because none of them offer therapy services. Therapy services goes beyond having school where you give children the regular teaching. Here, we access every child, discovers what they really need and draw each suitable programme for them and we improve on the programme as they improve.
It is mostly daunting task taking care of children with special needs, personally how has it been?
It is challenging, but the joy we derive makes it easy for us; we have therapists working with us, aside that I am also a specialist on disabilities. We have speech therapist, audiologist, physiotherapist that works with us too. We have teachers in all aspect of special education. We have teachers which focus on autism as we also have care givers. All these things must be put in place because these set of children must have special care that will improve their lives. Our main goal is to encourage them to be independent, this is why we have ensured not to deny them of vocational trainings such as bead making, music, hairdressing, fine art and various accept of sports to make them discover their talents.
What have been the challenges so far?
There are myriads of challenges. The acceptance was very low when we started years back, yet there are a lot of people around, but no one was ready to take up the challenge. At the end of the day you find them criticising what you are doing. So far, we have not allowed this to discourage us, because I have a philosophy that if you are knowledgeable about something use it to make impact on those who require your expertise. At a point, it was challenging to convince people to bring their children to a special school because they have the notion that the condition of their child might be worse. Also, over times, the special schools they have seen around are not impressive enough. But we stand to correct this at Treasures Delight International Care; we have set a standard and we give people, especially parents’ and guardians’ reasons that physically challenged child can enjoy full life. Another challenge is finances. It is time people, cooperate bodies and government realise that it is beyond giving food items or clothing materials to the needy. They should not also focus only on the motherless homes, because the special children also desire their attention. They need equipment that will make them improve or outgrow their disabilities.
How do you think the government can get physically challenged children begging for alms out of the streets?
It is through more awareness. The government needs to double up its effort and give maximum support to specialists in the filed to totally take children or person with disabilities off the streets. People also need to know that disability is not a spiritual matter and that there is an antidote. They really need causes, to understand how to manage the situation, treatment needed, preventive measures and other necessities. We need to show more love and stop any form of discrimination or stigmatisation. Some people even think we could be affected with the ailment. Nigeria needs to take a clue from advanced countries, where special children aren’t quite different from others. The environment here is not really friendly; someone on a wheelchair cannot enter a bank and other places, because there is no adequate support or provision for them. Indeed, governments support is very crucial, because the task is beyond an individual. We have actually solicited for the state government’s support and we are hopeful that they would eventually support these special children to actualise their dreams.
How have you been able to combine your passion with the home front without clash?
As I said earlier, my husband and I are into this together. It has never been a problem for us, because we have always had God’s backing. He understand what goes on in the centre, so it not really challenging combining the home front with catering for the special children.
How have you been able to build the confidence in the hearts of their parents?
Our expertise and the structure we have put in place are speaking good volume of us. We take away the heart of burden from parents by showing them empathy instead of sympathy. We help them to tackle the headlong. We always have assessment of every child and we state all their challenges and map out how to work on it. A full recording of the activities of every child, especially during therapy sections are also available for parents.
and then