Ptolemy Reid Centre – making an impact on society

Jun 08, 2008 News

---

Situated prominently at 130 Carmichael Street, Georgetown, the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre has over the years been rendering an indispensable service to the local citizenry, more specifically to disabled children.
In fact the three-flat facility which houses a school for differently-able children is also well known for its feature of being able to cater to the prosthetic, speech and physiological therapy needs of hundreds of children and even some adults.
But while the institution has a glowing legacy of helping those who are particularly physically challenged, there are some challenges which at times restrain the centre’s capacity to be efficient and effective in fulfilling its mandate.

At least this is according to Head of the Centre, Mr Anand Mangru, who during an interview with Kaieteur News recently related that a shortage of qualified teachers is the greatest hindrance which serves to impede the real potential of the centre.
Mangru who has been head of the centre for almost four years now said that in addition to ensuring the wellbeing of the children who utilise the service provided, he also strives to give immense focus on their educational needs too.
But it has been a long and hard task, he said, to acquire and retain trained staffers who have the ability to care and attend affectionately to the children.
At present he said that there are five teachers within the employ of the centre, two of whom are retired and three young recruits.
According to Mangru, many times retired teachers respond to the call of being a part of the school only to never return after a day or two.
He said that the recruits who are currently employed are undertaking early childhood programmes at the Institute of Distance and Communication Education (IDCE) and it is hoped that upon completion they will be accepted at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to further their studies and better contribute to the needs of the children.
However, it is often at this point Mangru said that he would see the last of most his teachers.
He explained that it has become a trend over the years that after qualifying at CPCE, teachers would prefer to have the exciting opportunity to be in the mainstream schools and among their peers rather than returning to quiet sessions with disabled children.
“When you are working here you have limited interaction and access to your peers and in fact some wicked people would decry those of us who are working here… but we usually make it our duty here to enlighten them,” Mangru asserted.
For this reason, he said that the school has set in motion public awareness programmes which are aimed at getting messages across to the public of the importance of the Centre and the many services it offers.
And there has been an overwhelming response, Mangru said, since more and more people have been accessing the school and all of the services offered at the centre.
According to him, there is a wide range of services offered in addition to special education. He said that there is a dormitory service for children who live far away and have need of attending the school, noting that while in the care of the centre children are provided with everything ranging from food to walking assistance.
He disclosed that some children are even allowed to stay for weeks at a time.
However, those that access the day care service which is offered to children between the ages of three years, six months and 10 years return home on a daily basis since it is believed that they should be given the love and care of family at that stage of their lives, Mangru said.
He noted though that there is limited accommodation for children with a view of ensuring that every child is given individual attention even as he emphasised that the main focus of the centre is on children who are severely neurologically challenged, meaning that they are disabled and cannot move about on their own and are in dire need for the rehab service.
And though the centre offers a wide variety of services including the production, repair and maintenance of prostheses, Mangru said that only a minimal cost is charged.  He divulged that persons are only required to pay based on the minimal cost of production, adding that the centre does not make a profit but aims at cost recovery which is often not met.
And so, in order for the school to survive, Mangru said that requests for support are often made to individuals and organisations to donate to the centre.
“Our resources are quite limited but we get our resources mainly through gifts and donations from people who sometimes just walk in and donate…I am so very pleased that there are still so many nice and generous people in the society.”
Even making requests from donors is done with much moderation, since major effort is directed to conserving and recycling where ever possible.
Among the most important requirements of the school, Mangru said, is the need for special furniture for the children which he disclosed can cost thousands of dollars to construct.
But despite the many challenges, the devoted Head said that there have been many notable successes which the school has derived over the years.
He revealed that although the physically challenged children are not readily able to enter mainstream schools, Ptolemy Reid has made massive headway in getting several of its students into schools such as North Georgetown Secondary, St Mary’s Secondary, St Angela’s Primary and South Road Nursery, proving that the school is still making a significant impact in society, Mangru said.

---

---