In an effort to promote Christian-based leadership, the Student Leaders Organization of the University of PNG (UPNG) accompanied by the university teaching staff visited the Cheshire Disability Services PNG Foundation this week bearing gifts.
According to the organization leader, Mrs Elizabeth Arabage, the tour of the young student leaders was one of many which are used to enrich the student leaders to be in good positions to contribute to effective leadership.
Mrs Arabage said that the donations of the student leaders were their way of giving back to the community for the education that they had received. It was a heart-felt experience for the students, who said that they were fortunate to be studying in college, while other young people, such as the patients of the foundation, were not able to do so.
The students gave food and toiletries to the foundation and thanked the staff for their constant care of the patients. The University Warden, Mr Luke Robine, who had also accompanied the students, addressed the student leaders saying they should acknowledge their blessings and give to those who were in need. The Student Leaders Organization is guided by the organization’s adage which challenges the student leaders to contribute to solutions and not to the problems.
Cheshire Foundation administrator Mrs Manoka Igo said that the foundation usually gets funds from the Government, the mobile network company Digicel, and open donations to provide for the patients and the salaries of the staff.
However, these funds have proven to not to be enough. Among other means of fund raising, the foundation makes money through their famous weekend barbeque-stand at the Boroko Foodworld Shopping Centre. The foundation has fifty staff members; six (of which are volunteers, and they are a mixture of mothers and young adults.
Mrs Igo was pleased with the visit of the student leaders and said that apart from occasional visits from the Revival Churches, patients had received few or no visitors at all.
The name of the foundation was recently changed due to the rise of a new Disability Convention that disallows further funding to the foundation. The decision made by the Government was the result of an effort to stop the practise of parents abandoning their disabled children at foundations such as Cheshire, and to take the responsibility of caring for their own children.
The foundation was previously called the “Cheshire Home” before it’s status was changed. It now houses a total of 21 patients, all of whom are disabled. Apart from being disabled, all have been permanently abandoned by parents except for three who have parents visiting them occasionally.
The foundation also runs a school called Inclusive School, for the special-needs children where the children are taught under an Individual Education Plan (IEP). The school runs on K200 school fees paid by the parents of the children, and the teachers say that better classrooms are needed to cater for the children.
Mrs Igo said that the school was a way of giving the children a place in society; where they would otherwise not have been in other schools or out in society. The school is set to be more recognised now that the new Government policy on sign-language being the fourth (4th) language was confirmed last month. This now allows improved special-needs children to be integrated into mainstream schools.
Apart from the foundation’s Inclusive School, there is another at Tubu, along the Hiritano Highway, which the foundation is looking to incorporate as part of its organisation. Mrs Igo said that apart from helping to fund the foundation, Digicel also helps to finance other similar programs in Hanuabada, 8 mile, Gabagaba and Vabukori.
The foundation’s premises are divided into four sections; the School, the Special Care Centre, the Self-Care Centre; where disabled youths who are capable of looking after themselves reside, and the Administration block.
After getting donations, the foundation goes out to visit other disabled children in the city who live with their parents to show support to the child’s family. If you are interested to visit the foundation or assist with its activities, visit them along Wards Road at Hohola, not far from the PNG Power head office.