Accepting Disability: The School That Made All The Difference

by Fadi Dabbousi

No institution worth its sort would turn a blind eye to a very compelling social responsibility which, hitherto, has been neglected or forgotten for the want of a softer statement to aptly put it. However, it is quite obfuscating to find out how apathetic society is towards the physically challenged and that is easily read in the general lack of provisions made in all aspects of life.

Imagine the trauma of receiving into this world a child with much anticipation of a bright future, much brighter than one would envisage for themselves, only to be given a disabled and helpless bundle of joy. Yes, it is a multi-faced trauma requiring agility of skill on all levels: psychology to maintain a proper sense of direction; body strength and health to help in mobility of the child; sound financial resources to facilitate the necessary but very expensive cost of health care; a big heart to accommodate all the negative perceptions and utterances of a rather lame society that is ill-prepared to have such unfortunate people in its midst, and a will to hold on with the love that rips one to bits as it bubbles over day in and day out.

The most outrageous culture practised by society at large is the rejection of such people in the educational system and where same is accorded it comes with an unbearable cost, which most parents can never afford.

However, one school that has made all the difference in a child’s life is AlRayyan International School (ARIS). Located off the spintex road, a few meters past the Accra Mall in the direction of the Coca Cola roundabout, this school accepted a disabled child with the excitement of a parent receiving a new born baby. It came to me as a major surprise that, although the building was not constructed with facilities for the disabled, the board of the school has exhibited its resolve to change things around.

It is worth noting that the principal of the school, a medical Doctor by profession with an appreciable expertise in the field of disability having worked for the United Nations in humanitarian relief has, personally, championed the cause of the physically challenged by insisting that the new campus at East Legon be disability friendly. She believes that “disability is ability” and such children must not be ostracised or marginalised in any way at all. She draws inspiration from the many high profile persons with disability who have contributed more than their appreciable quota to the world at large with innovations, discoveries and inventions, citing Professor Stephen Hawking, a professor in mathematics, whose case is extreme and befuddling, maybe near miraculous.

I want to use this article to thank all and sundry who have accommodated this child in every loving manner possible. For years he had had to be abroad receiving treatment and a supposed education at a school that turned out to be a sham, whose sole interest was in the fees, leaving him helpless and hapless with camouflaged care.

Now that ARIS (AlRayyan International school), in GHANA, has taken the lead in providing mainstream education for the physically challenged in society, other schools must follow suit, especially those whose fees are backbreaking and unbearable. Thanks to ARIS, this child now looks forward to a new beginning with every sunrise, eager to have Daddy and Mummy prepare him for the day. For the first time, he is ever eager to go to school knowing that there is so much love to be given there alongside his parents’. The teachers have been superb, administration personnel very warm and cordial but most of all, his classmates and other students have accorded him the most humble love of all.

Thank you ARIS! Thank you for believing in the “ability of disability”! Thank you for accepting MY CHILD.