"WHAT I would like is for there to be some provisions in our education system for on-going training for mentally-challenged children. It stops in Jamaica at about 16 or 17, after that it's the full responsibility of a family who most time cannot afford individual training for their children. I am not able to do what I would want to provide for these children because of various constraints.
"I would like it to be the responsibility of our government that these children are a part of a learning system, and that we can't stop training them. We don't know how far they will be able to go in terms of their own personal capacity for learning, and there shouldn't be a cut off. For example, we see what we would call normal children being assisted by the government, there are scholarships for brilliant children, but there is no assistance for a child who has been mentally retarded, sometimes by the same system, because of negligence in a hospital or for some other reason your child is made mentally retarded and there is absolutely no assistance. So what I would want is for the Government to provide a facility that would be able to cater to the needs of these children for life.
JAMAICA AND MENTALLY-CHALLENGED CHILDREN
"I just want to use this forum to just encourage us to educate our country about the mentally retarded. I feel much more comfortable visiting a store or a supermarket or a restaurant in the United States with my child than I do in Jamaica, it is so difficult. I have had persons who come up to me and say 'How is your daughter?' I have two daughters, and they are talking about my daughter who is in university. I think it is very uncomfortable for them to recognise that I am comfortable with my child, and I want the public to know that persons who have to live with a mentally challenged person are very comfortable and happy with these children.
"In fact, we don't even wonder what they would be like if they were not like that, we are very comfortable with them, and we want everyone to understand that these kids are people who need to be recognised and be treated equally, equally in every area of our lives in this country.
"When we compare the treatment that is given to a mentally challenged person in the United States, the various things that are made available to these children, it's amazing. We treat these children like animals in some situations, and it really grieves my heart to see what we have to fight for as parents with mentally challenged children.
NEED FOR A BUILDING
"We are in a classroom setting which is not ideal but we are going on with school. What we need, and I want to make an appeal to persons in Jamaica, anyone with a house anywhere, because what we are teaching these children are to be functional people in our society as much as possible, so we need a house where we can have them live.
"You have parents who want to go out one evening and they have nowhere to leave their children. I spoke to a parent the other day, she has missed several workshops because she can't leave her child to attend a workshop. We want to have a facility where we can sit children for days and weeks and months at a time while their parents pursue their educational goals.
"Life does not have to stop because you have a mentally challenged child and because you have persons around you who don't care about what is happening in your life. I just want us to encourage persons in Jamaica to treat these kids normally, to treat these families normally. They are just as normal as any other family in this country. Being the parent of a special child it has opened my entire life to so much education in the special needs. I am able to empathise with other parents with children with special needs. The down side is because we are presently a private institution we are not able to access the kind of resource that we would need for the total advancement of these children."
- Elizabeth Osbourne
