Pay Assessment Fees for Special Needs Children

Our fundraising has not been as successful as we had hoped, however we continue to provide whatever assistance we can to select families of special needs children, we are being called upon to assist with many cases for medical assessments and to provide non perishable food items and other disposibles however due to financial constraints we can only help those who are extremely vulnerable. 

We continue to hope that our request for assistance and cry for help for and on behalf of special needs childre and victims and survivors of gender based violence will be heard and both private individuals and corporate entities and they will voluntarily come forward to assist. 

We continue to advocate for and behalf of the vulnerable, marginalized, poor, victimized and those who do not have the strength or courage to come forward and speak for themselves, we continue to advocate for the amendment of specific pieces of legislation to ensure all women and children are equally recognized in their own right and we continue to advocate for improved social services so victims of violence can feel safe while disclosing violence and most importantly we continue to hope that children in state rehabilitation institutions and private foster care are protected, cared for and rehabilitated so they may be reintegrated into society as productive individuals.

We welcome your donation to support families of special needs children! 

This project provided support to children and families of special needs children from November 2017, meanwhile, we continue to advocate for better services and support for families of special needs children while raising funds to provide health assessments, disposable diapers, wipes, nonperishables, etc.

We are concerned that rather than supporting families with developmental services the Government of Saint Lucia have chosen a system that engages parents in a constant struggle to obtain and maintain vital services for their special needs children; to date the Government has defunded the Community Health Assessor for Special Needs Children, therefore parents who are poor or does not have the necessary financial means have difficulty getting their children assessed to be eligible to attend school.

Also, the EDUCATION QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (EQuIP) funded by the Caribbean Development bank will conduct a study to “enhance special needs education by assessing what institutional and infrastructural improvements are needed to provide quality education and equitable access to children with special educational needs” but the government has removed the infrastructural part of the project to construct a modern physical space for the rehabilitation and education of special needs children. 

Your generosity has taken us thus far and we continue to request your support, advocacy and encouragement to assist special needs families during these challenging times.

Caring for special needs children requires patience, dedication, love and financial resources to ensure the continued well-being of special needs children. By laying the groundwork early and taking advantage of available resources, you can minimize the worry of caregiving and enjoy its rewards.

Bowsing through the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure there was still no provision for a special needs community specialist and funding for medical assessments which is critical for special needs children to qualify for social assistance, education and other benefits. 

Caring for a special needs child can bring unique joys to your life—as well as a number of financial and emotional concerns. Unfortunately, there are no free support programs and free resources in place—that can make it easier for you to give your child a secure and fulfilling life, The financial demands of any specialized care may be immediate and intimidating.

It may be even more dunting if either parent need to leave the workforce to care for a loved one with special needs, the second half of last year and the first quarter of this year your generous donations allowed us to assist 13 children with special needs assessments, consumables such as disposible diapers, wipes, personal care and non persishable food items to assist families, we continue to hope for your generosity to continue assisting those we are already assisting and those who are in dire need of assistance. We cannot do it alone  and are asking for your help and donations. 

At this time of the year children everywhere are writing their Christmas lists and are hoping that Santa will leave that special toy for them under the tree on Christmas morning. We can all remember the excitement and anticipation, of wishing for a new toy, the latest doll with all the accessories or that must have gadget.  We can also remember the look of sheer delight and smiles on children’s faces when they open their presents and the fun and enjoyment that special gift gives them.

But for underprivileged families who have special needs children it’s not that easy or straightforward. Often the cost of giving their child the things that will bring enjoyment, fun and pleasure is too much for them to afford. Gifts that are suitable for children with additional needs to be able to use, or enjoy safely, can cost as much as ten times the price of a regular item.

The future of special needs children in St. Lucia is uncertain as they have lost government funding which provided a special needs health assessor who provided health assessments to special needs children, Raise Your Voice Saint Lucia Inc believes in giving families who have children with special needs the chance to find a better life together, not just at Christmas but all through the year. On December 22^nd, we delivered personal care items and nonperishable foods to families of special needs children and during the last three months assisted with getting health assessments which is quite costly for poor and needy families.  

By making a donation to our fundraising drive you contributed to making a difference to a child’s life and help families find and afford health assessments and personal care items such as pampers, wipes, skin care, milk and other food items that mean so much to their child.

This project report is a submission to GlobalGiving’s 2017 Fail Forward Contest, where organizations are asked to share a story of when they tried something new that didn’t go as planned and how they learned from it. Enjoy!’

Raise Your Voice Saint Lucia Inc advocated for and on behalf of special needs children and their families who are incapable because of  financial and economic reasons, provide basic resources for their special needs children, who previously received subsidized health care from the Government. In this year's budget the funding for health assessments was defunded and the contract for the medical specialists terminated. 

We advocated on social media, radio talk shows, newspapers local television news, etc. We know that most parents of special needs chilren cannot work or in some cases cannot find work that is flexible and its difficult to get a carer for some special needs children or the parents simply cannot afford a carer. 

We advocated so funding could be reinstated for special needs children and we needed people to rally with special needs children and their families, our advocacy was overly successful in that it created awareness and with awareness came the needs list from parents and families who had special needs children but could not afford medical health checks and basic items such as Pampers, Wipes, Bibs, Food, Clothing, Formula, etc. Our problem was then to find a way to solve a problem our advocacy had created - to assist families with the needs.

The Idea to advocate for the reinstement of funding by the Government  failed but created a new problem for our organisations, how to help those who were in dire need. we did not forsee advocacy created public awareness and expectations of assistance from the advocates, we were not in a financial position to fulfill those needs either, as we had no financial allocation specifically designated  to this cause.

We discussed this issue at length at our weekly meeting, the only palatable solution to assist this situation was to explore ways to raise funds to provide help, we settled on the global giving platform to raise funds, wrote our project, submitted and started our advocacy again but this time with an aim to raise funds to assist needy families of special needs children.

We learnt a valuable lesson, when advocating on a problem, ANALYZE  the problem from every angel and  from the standpoint of the persons who are affected, look at associated needs and what can help apart from advocacy to deal with the problem in a holistic manner.

To date, from funds collected locally, we have provided assistance to five families including medical assessments, personal care items and food. We are working at solving a problem of expectation we created with our advocacy by raising funds and being very persistent with donors who promised to assist and so far we have done well.

We look forward to assisting more families with special needs children who are not financially empowered.