There will be no grand celebrations today as Life Centre, the special needs school, marks 20 years of service.
That’s because the doors of the school remain shut to the 24 autistic and down syndrome children that depend on it to learn life skills in their own special way and at their own pace.
The school was closed on September 30 with funds running out to keep the doors open to the special needs students.
On the final day before they closed, these words were written on a whiteboard to help the special needs students fully understand what was happening. “Today is our last day of school. We will not be coming back to Life Centre. We will have to close the gate and doors. We will have to tell your parents when you can come back to Life Centre. All the aunties will be sad.”
The Republic Bank’s Power to Make a Difference programme offered a glimmer of hope when its funds were used to help purchase a property for the school to move from Diego Martin to Cascade but the administrators are still $500,000 short of what they need to run the school.
Administrative assistant Deborah Clarke told us, “Unfortunately no other funding came in and we had to close our doors temporarily because we’re still hoping to get some funding from corporate T&T. We can’t do this without them. There is no way Life Centre can be self-sustaining.”
Clarke says it costs $100,000 a month to keep the school afloat and while the fee per term is $15,000, the school doesn’t turn away special needs children. Instead, if parents can’t afford to pay the fee, they pay what they can.
“Many of our families are from a lower socio-economic section of our facility so they can’t afford the school fees. There is a tier system and they pay what they can but the rest has to come from the state and corporate T&T,” she said.
Eric Jardim has been at the school since he was three years old. Now at 23, this autistic man is still dependent on Life Centre to learn about life skills.
His mother Rosanne Farfan told us, “He’s very frustrated because he hardly has anywhere to go. He enjoys coming to school and meeting all the teachers and all his friends because they treat him really nice here.”
More than keeping these special needs students occupied, Raymond Evans told Guardian Media the standard and quality of care the school offers is what is required for special needs children.
The father of a down syndrome son, Evans said, “A lot of these kids can’t just be left in a regular daycare, you need people who you could trust, people who know how to deal with them and that’s hard... It will be a shame to lose these teachers as well. These people are dedicated professionals who know what they’re doing, who are angels really.”
With the discovery of 69 people in cages in Arouca mere weeks ago, a startling reality has seeped over the school’s administrators of what could happen to vulnerable people who are in need of special help.
After Guardian Media first published a story about the plight of the school, the school administrator said a number of people have reached out and asked for proposals on how they can assist. The administration is scheduled to hold meetings with these interested persons soon.
In the meantime, the school is hoping to raise the funds and reopen its doors as soon as possible.
