SUBEB, NAPVID Celebrate Children With Special Needs

As part of activities to mark this year’s  Children’s Day, the Network for Advancement of Persons with Visible Disabilities (NAPVID) with support from the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has celebrated with children with special needs in the state.

NAPVID, alongside representatives of SUBEB on Thursday and Friday were at some special schools in Benin City to celebrate as well as distribute gifts to over 400 children and teaching staff.

The schools visited include schools for hearing and visually impaired, that for the physically challenged, Payne Primary and Eyaen’ugie Primary Schools in the state capital.

NAPVID’s executive director, Barrister Melody Omosah, said the visit was in line with the organisation’s ‘Project HELP’ education and palliative components supported by the state government to cater for persons with disabilities in the state.

Omosah, while admonishing the pupils to be serious with their studies, urged teachers at the schools to be committed to their duties to ensure they lay solid foundation for the children.

“Recall that we’re partnering with the Edo State government, because in 2021 we reached out to the government, and the government decided to partner with us (NAPVID), and we launched what we called the NAPVID health, education, livelihood and palliatives persons with disabilities. So, under the education and palliative components of that project HELP, we have come out to identify with pupils of these schools,” said Omosah at the school for the hearing impaired.

Also, Akinjare Olarewaju, the representative of Edo SUBEB, commended NAPVID for the initiative, noting that the government was aware of the challenges faced by the schools and arrangement were on to fix it.

The children expressed appreciation to the state government and NAPVID for the gesture, which they said would encourage them to do well in their academic work.