At Modupe Cole, There’s Ability in Disability

At Modupe Cole, There’s Ability in Disability

By Chiemelie Ezeobi

04 Oct 2010

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‘There is a silver lining in every cloud’, so says an axiom. This saying is played out everyday at Modupe Cole Memorial Childcare   & Treatment Home/School as the students in the home have looked beyond their limitations to toe the paths of  success. Recently at the home, smiles were put on their faces by the 1% Foundation working in collaboration with doctors of the Department of Community Health and Primary Care, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) who vaccinated the pupils  of the home.

In his speech, the principal of the home/school Mrs. Durowoju said that with its mission of providing care and services for those mentally and physically challenged, many lives have been changed for the better. According to her, the goal of the home is to continue to make a difference in the community coupled with the help of donations from supporters; improvement will be on the increase.

THISDAY learnt that the home cares for about 300 mentally and physically challenged children from age 8 and above. While some of the children attend the school from home, others are in residence.

Despite their challenges, these students have excelled in skills and talents and are running with it. Speaking, the head of the vocational unit Mrs. Kayode Florence said: “the vocational center is where the students learn and show their  ability or area of interest. It was established for the none-educable ones. When they are brought here, we test them in so many areas to know their interest and then we take it from there.”  

She said that in order to enhance their capabilities, the school has different  sections like the computer section, the wood section where they make cane chairs and furniture, the barbing and hair salon, the painting department, the home economics as well as cobbling department.

“We have the computer department where the students are made knowledgeable because we are in the ICT era although it’s not for everyone of them because  some do not have the high mental capacity to grasp what is being taught. Also, we have a section where mops used for cleaning are made. This is the first  place where they are trained to use their hands.”

However, she said if the child does not indicate interest the student is taken to another department. “We have the home economics dept which is mainly for the girls where they learn bead making, twine bags, air fresheners, liquid soaps as  well as learn to cook. The reason is that when they leave this place, they can be useful to themselves. In clothing and textile units, we have the students who are currently sewing our bed spreads now.”

The barbing and hair dressing area was a welcome sight to behold with all the facilities that make up a real salon. The surprise is that the salon is open to the people of the community to come and do their hair for a fee. The students of the home are not left out of the grooming of the hair. There they barb, fix, weave,  wash and set hair.

Still speaking, Kayode said that the students are not released until they are sure that they are okay. Reason being that their learning abilities are different from other people. “Some of them if we teach them something now, once the school closes for holiday and they come back, we have to start all over again and that is why they are not graduating on time. Already we have about six  people that are ready for graduation and if we see help from any non-governmental organization or the   government to set them up because some of  them are from poor homes”, she noted.

Similar with every success story there are challenges in the course of achieving  set goals. For the students in the vocational center, one of the problems are how to set them up after training and secondly how to them sell the products to realize money to do another. According to Kayode, “for example, if the hospitals  buy mop from us, we can produce more to meet demand as well as buy the resources for another.”          

However, she commended the efforts of the government so far in carrying the home  along as well as give hope to the students of the home and their families alike. 

Armed with the saying ‘small drops of water makes a mighty ocean’ founder and project coordinator of 1% Foundation, Olushola Adewumi  believes that just by  contribution of  1% of time and resources lives will and can be touched.
The story behind philanthropy he disclosed began during his days in school when as a member of the junior chambers of his school he paid a visit to the home and that was it. He realized his goal and purpose in life. “Growing up, I had a soft  spot for the mentally and physically challenged.”

Speaking on their core values, Adewumi said, “We recognize that issues of need  cannot be solved by money alone, and that we must be actively engaged in order  to make a difference in our communities and the world. We believe in donating  time, energy, and expertise in addition to financial support.”

“Whatever people are giving us is a very good platform to reach out to these kids. Almost every kid has one skill or the other either in making of mops, shoes, clothes, bags amongst others. Maybe someday, these kids will be able to  walk around proudly that they can achieve something.”  

The secret behind his compassionate stand about the physically and mentally challenged is none other than he sees these kids through the eyes of love.  According to him, “the kids might be mentally challenged to your eyes but to us they are just unique because they can still do something with their hands.”

Disclosing plans on how to encourage the talented students, Adewumi said they are going into exhibitions because we believe that the products are saleable. “We can do this through creating a platform where people patronize these goods. We  are also thinking of partnering with some fast foods on creating a corner in their respective restaurants for their products. They are of high quality because they are hand crafted”, he added. 

Condemning the stigmatization of the challenged, he said, “Another thing we are going to do is to remove the stigmatization around them. People still abandon kids on the streets. That should stop because if you know how to treat these kids from preventive, curative and management of the ailment, then you shouldn’t have a problem. It’s not like you pray to God to have one but you shouldn’t  abandon them because they are gifts from God.”

While commending the care givers, he threw up question of their welfare. According to him, “the care givers here are wonderful but a question keeps popping into my mind. What is their welfare like? We are talking welfare packages. What’s their pay package like? Why should they like or rue their job?  What extra incentive will make them treat the kids well?”
“It’s one of the things we are discussing in our foundation to look for a way to  partner with the government to pay them additional so that when they realize we  are concerned about her, she can do more. If you take care of them well, they’ll do same for the kids.”

He further said, “right now, they don’t have any physiotherapy unit and these kids what they need the most is that unit. If we bring in a physiotherapist here to see the kids to be paid for the foundation. If everybody can contribute their  1% we can be able to bring in one.”

Explaining their reasons for partnering with the foundation, one of the volunteers from the Department of Community Health and Primary Care, LUTH, Dr. Yinka Adeniran said that it’s part of their work. “We provide health services we  believe also in helping the less privileged as much as we can. The spirit behind medicine is humanitarian in nature. This is not the first time we are going for medical health care for homes.” 

Project Manager, Ibrahim Durosimi, noted that the foundation is a corporate social responsibility of the Contagious Group.  Their aim, he stated is to empower individuals to be able to contribute at least 1% of their silks or their resources in helping the less priviledged. 

On funding he said, “what we need funding for are resources that can’t be given manually.  Because there are so many foundations asking for money continually, it has caused a lot of damage to that area of philanthropy so we decided to get the source to employ his skills in our favour instead of giving us cash.”