Good Morning Angels: Christmas cheer for children with autism and behavioural special needs education

BACKGROUND:  This, according to Ashika Govender, Head of Therapy at the Randburg Clinic School for Autistic and Special Needs Learners. Govender has been working with autistic children for many years and says their needs, responses, severity of the condition and education success vary tremendously. Autism affects mainly boys and they are often misread as being naughty, undisciplined children. "Autistic children need a lot of love, understanding and care”, according to Angie Hall, PR Officer for Randburg Clinic School and mom of a 7-year old autistic son. This is one of the reasons why autistic children born in poverty are often neglected and become wards of the state. Annie wrote to Good Morning Angels asking for help to give these special children some Christmas cheer, as many of them will not have this at the homes they go to for the December holiday.  

REQUEST FOR: Randburg Clinic School for Special needs and Autistic Learners

ANGEL: Steven Mc Intyre, Co-owner MacProp 

SPONSORING: MacProp will donate R30 000,00 towards Randburg Clinic School’s children's’ needs this festive season

YOU CAN HELP: The children at the Randburg Clinic School need the following. Contact Angie Hall at: [email protected]

For Christmas:

·         Lego building Blocks

·         Superhero action figures

·         Clothing i.e Shorts, t-shirts

·         Takkies

·         Dolls 

·         Toiletry Packs

·         Hair Accessories

·         Party Packs

·         Soccer boots

   Long Term Needs:

·         Hostel needs bedding and curtains ( 48 beds, 7 rooms)

·         Bikes with helmets for the hostel boys

·         Food for the kitchen, (milk, peanut butter, butter, bread, cereal, artificial free snacks, rooibos tea)

·         Board games (snakes and ladders, luddo, n finger board)

·         Toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, Vaseline, body cream, roll on, soap, toilet paper)

·         Stationery Packs

·         Building blocks

·         Nappies and wet wipes

·         Shade cloth for the playgrounds

·         Indoor Boxing ring (this aids in the frustration level)

·         Projectors and screens (children are very visual and learn more with images)

·         Tablets/Ipads ( this is a very important tool for our children as this is a form of communication for our nonverbal children and it also helps the teacher to assess the children’s progress in the class room)

·         School Transport, the school began offering transport to parents as from the beginning of this term. However, due to the huge demand we are short of vehicles. 

ORIGINAL REQUEST:

Good Morning,

The silly season has arrived and for many it is considered as the most wonderful time of the year. We would like to make this true for the children at Randburg Clinic School. As such, we invite you to give the gift of joy to our special learners. 

We, like the children would be grateful and accept anything, but to help you decide how to spread the love this festive season we have a few suggestions you can consider. As a corporate investment you could ask your staff members to buy a small gift for a boy or girl wrap it and mark it with gender and age. We have provided a list attached of recommended items. Additionally, if you have corporate gifts we are willing to accept those as well..  

Not only are our learners special, many of them are either wards of the state and do not have the joy of spending Christmas with family or come from families that have socio-economic challenges. Due to these circumstances, many of the learners will not be receiving gifts from at their homes. They may not wake up to stacks of presents under the Christmas tree on the 25th of December but we would like to show them the love everyone should be experiencing their last week at school. 

Help us spread love and joy to children that have had to overcome so many challenges early in life.

Many Merry Blessings

Angie Hall