To Rehabilitation for children with special needs living at home
First Step cares for 6 children who have difficulty walking because they were born with cerebral palsy and were not treated on time. 3 of the children can only lie flat on their backs because of severe health conditions. Tbilisi Rehabilitation Centre helps children who have difficulty walking or moving to enjoy better mobility.
$1.45 per day (just $42 per month) provides physical therapy for 1 child, allowing him to sit up, walk or move more easily ($252 monthly gives this gift to 6 kids!)
$2.15 per day (just $65 per month) pays to transport those 6 children to the rehabilitation centre
To Fun and Dispelling Stigmas!
Every child and young person needs to make friends and to play and have fun. Too often, however, there are barriers to recreational opportunities for children with special needs. First Step Georgia provides essential opportunities for these special children to make friends and have as much fun as they deserve.
To "Play Days" for home-based children
Help our special needs children enjoy painting, singing and playing special games led by volunteers. The charity Terre des Homme sponsors a project called – “child friendly places for internally displaced children”. They are ready to involve First Step Georgia children but it entails extra costs.
$10 per month pays for food and transport to a play day for 1 special needs child who lives at home.
$140 per month allows 15 children to attend.
To Sports and Lessons
for children living at First Step’s Residential Home
· $12 per month gives 1 child swimming lessons
· $72 gives one month of swimming lessons for 6 children
· $1.15 per day (just $34 per month) gives 1 young person a place at the Workshop “Social Therapy House” where they learn to use copy machines, make textbooks
· $1.40 per day (just $42 per month) gives 1 child classes at the Daycare Centre “AISI” –which provides services for children with mild intellectual disabilities
· $57 per month gives 1 child special rehabilitation activities (transport and classes)
To Special Educational Needs – Special Children
Only $1.45 per day (just $42 per month)…Your donation provides developmental toys and books –like any other young people, the children at First Step’s Residential Home and Day Care Centre love to play with different toys, and like any other children, they often break or spoil the toys. Toys, as well as books, are essential for their development.
To Enhanced Communication
Children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities need to be taught how to communicate and integrate. Sensory stimulus can often help a child when standard education and play-based learning is insufficient.
· $30 buys special seating
· $60 buys balls for children to touch, throw and catch
· $210 buys an aquarium where children love to watch fish swim
· $1,500 buys a projector which beams light patterns and images onto a wall
To Critical Dietary Needs
Many of the children First Step Georgia cares for have chronic health problems. Giorgi was evacuated from Kaspi State Institution in 2002 to a children’s hospital, where he lived until 2005. Now he is 21 years old and lives semi-independently in First Step’s programme. He is employed at a social workshop that makes copies and produces textbooks. Giorgi suffers from a condition (PKU link below) that requires $500 per month for critical dietary needs:
· $200 per month provides low-protein food for Giorgi or for another special child with PKU.
· $300 per month provides Hydrolisate for Giorgi (children under 18 are covered for hydrolisate by the state, Giorgi at 21 years falls through the social safety net).
PKU is a condition in which the body produces too much phenylalaline, a substance found in protein. PKU can cause severe intellectual disability, epilepsy at later stages and must be treated through a protein-free diet/low-protein diet. Also, Hydrolisate food supplement is a part of the diet of a PKU patient.
To Music
At the heart of First Step’s mission is integrating children with special needs into society. This process starts at school age and at Tbilisi’s Public School # 100 children with and without special needs play together in a folk music orchestra, thus enjoying the benefits of integration and the therapy which music provides. Help keep the orchestra going: we urgently need new and better instruments:
· $180 Buzika- (Musical Instrument)
· $838 Contrabass- (Musical Instrument)
