By Kunle SHONUGA
The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has reaffirmed her commitment to boost the capacity of health workers, care givers and teachers handling children with special needs.
MrsBuhari made the commitment on Friday during the closing ceremony of 4-days capacity building workshop organised by the Aisha Buhari Foundation in partnership with NIKA Foundation for teachers and healthcare providers handling children with special needs at Kuje, FCT.
The programme attracted participants from the FCT School for the Blind, School for the Deaf as well as School for the Handicap in Abuja.
The wife of the president who was represented by her Personal Physician, Dr Mohammed Kamal, said the programme was organised to equip the teachers and caregivers with the requisite knowledge to teach children with special needs.
“Everywhere in the world, there are children with either physical or mental disabilities and these children are confronted with hearing and seating difficulties as well as malnutrition on a daily basis.
“They are also susceptible to infectious diseases as well as inability to speak and write in school,” she said.
The wife of the president also explained that the decision to engage specialists for the training was borne out of the emerging need for the children to have special attention.
She said the programme was meant to cater for the needy women and children with disabilities.
According to her, educational empowerment is one of the cardinal objectives of her foundation.
The Global Coordinator of NIKA Foundation and a resource person at the training, Mr Dan Philips, commended the teachers for their quick understanding of the new techniques in the lesson which could assist them impact on the children.
Philips also commended the participants for their attention during the session and urged them to practice the skills acquired.
Also speaking, a Development Paediatrician, Dr Shola Faniran, stressed the need for early detection of child disabilities.
Faniran said that early detection of child disability would assist parents to intervene in addressing issues related to child disabilities.
One of the participants, MrsChizobaOdili, said the training would impact positively in her new method of teaching.
According to her, they were exposed to new educational applications that will go a long way to improve their teaching skills.
While thanking the Aisha Buhari Foundation for organising such an important training, Odili said the new application would make them work conveniently and enable them impart good knowledge to the children.
