Education Programme

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The early years of ORM concentrated primarily on providing urgent medical care for the children and bringing their deplorable living environment up to an acceptable standard for human habitation. As the children became healthy the focus of our efforts needed to change. The children needed a focus in their lives too, 24 hours is a lot of time to fill during a day, they needed to break from the repetitive cycle of wake, eat, wait for sleep and sleep. They desperately needed a change and this is where our education programmes came into their own.

We wanted to set realistic goals for these children. Some children would be ideal candidates for formal education, albeit in some cases 20 years late. But we always maintain that it is better late than never. Others would be better suited to our auxiliary programmes and therapies. Each child is assessed and every child takes part in a programme. These are separate to our speech & language, physiotherapy and medical programmes. Some children take part in all the programmes, meaning their day is literally jam packed.

We provide the option of programmes, we do not force the children to participate. Change is difficult to manage for everyone. The children showed resistance in the beginning to many of the programmes, especially to school and the dreaded homework, but they soon learned that new doors were opening, that their days would have purpose and meaning and all children attend their programmes 5 days a week with pleasure now.

The cultural mind set of Moldovans towards children with disability is beginning to change, where we were informed in the beginning that such programmes were a waste of time, effort and money, people now attend concerts given by the children and attend art fairs where the children sell their work. Parents who visit their children see not only the physical changes in the children, but the all important psychological changes as the childrens self esteem and self worth grows.

If you would like to see some of the educational programmes we provide, please follow the links below.