Tucked away on Vi­dale Street in St James, the Caribbean Kids and Fam­i­ly Ther­a­py Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CK­FTO) is lo­cat­ed on an unas­sum­ing com­pound. It is on­ly up­on en­ter­ing the build­ing that one dis­cov­ers that this or­gan­i­sa­tion hous­es very im­por­tant re­sources for spe­cial-needs chil­dren and their fam­i­lies.The on­ly cen­tre in T&T that pro­vides oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py for chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties of all kinds, the CK­FTO is a non-prof­it body. Their ser­vices are tar­get­ed to­wards the pro­vi­sion of ther­a­py and sup­port for chil­dren and fam­i­lies of chil­dren with a wide range of de­vel­op­men­tal and phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties, re­gard­less of in­come or abil­i­ty to pay.

More than 100 chil­dren each month go to the CK­FTO for as­sess­ments and ther­a­py, a process that helps them to cope with their dis­abil­i­ties and learn the every­day skills that most take for grant­ed.The CK­FTO em­ploys the on­ly three Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­pists and the on­ly Be­hav­iour­al Ther­a­pist in T&T, work­ing with them to pro­vide a wide range of pro­grammes that ad­dress the var­i­ous phys­i­cal and men­tal dis­abil­i­ties that af­fect the na­tion's chil­dren.

They al­so work to ed­u­cate fam­i­lies, teach­ers, stu­dents and the gen­er­al pub­lic about the chal­lenges faced by in­di­vid­u­als with spe­cial needs. In sup­port of this ad­mirable un­der­tak­ing, the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion, a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion (NGO), has do­nat­ed one year's salary for Vi­no­lia Chokkaling­ham-an oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pist out of Chen­nai, In­dia-to work with the CK­FTO's chil­dren. The foun­da­tion is al­so cov­er­ing the cost of one year's free treat­ment for six un­der­priv­i­leged chil­dren.

Last month foun­da­tion vol­un­teers vis­it­ed the CK­FTO to see the fa­cil­i­ty. Vice pres­i­dent Sofia Figueroa-Leon Vi­no­lia gave the vol­un­teers a tour and ex­plained some of the de­tails of her work, which cov­ers emo­tion­al, phys­i­cal, cog­ni­tive, so­cial and work-re­lat­ed skill-build­ing.The vol­un­teers were able to view the ful­ly equipped sen­so­ry gym, which con­tains a ball pit, tram­po­line, swings and var­i­ous items of dif­fer­ent tex­tures and colours to stim­u­late the mind. Thor­ough­ly im­pressed with the fa­cil­i­ty, Pen­ny Gomez, Dig­i­cel Com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er al­so vowed to re­turn at Christ­mas with gifts for the chil­dren.