MAC Fundraiser Supports Disabled Children Activity Program

On November 19 the McLain Association for Children (MAC) held a fundraising event at Betsy’s Hotel Tbilisi during which it presented its beneficiary program, Let’s Play Together.

Let’s Play Together (LPT) sees able-bodied youth spending an active day with those of lesser ability, including mentally challenged and wheelchair-bound children, doing sports and craft activities together in a one-on-one or team basis.

“The youth are selected by Peace Corps volunteers who are already in regular contact with them through the English language teaching programs,” Courtney Ostert, board member of LPT, said. “They then receive training on how to work with disabled children. They are already open-minded and eager to help out, so it’s easy for them to take in the needed information.”

The activities take place in schools or other large and accessible facilities in regional towns throughout the country, the aim being to offer stimulating access to fun for those whose daily lives are limited by their disabilities and surroundings.

Jeremy Gaskill, a former US Peace Corps Volunteer in Georgia, and current MAC Chief Executive Officer, presented three cases, three children with disabilities, who had benefited from the program.

“12-year-old Ana has cerebral palsy (CP). She lives on the 5th floor of a building which has a lift, but one that is too small for her home wheelchair to fit in. This means that she must be carried in her mother’s arms to the bus. The day-care center she attends has a separate wheelchair available for her to use while there. When we met Ana she was extremely dependent on those around her to dress, eat and move her. Since our trainers got involved, she has really bloomed and is now able to reposition herself in the chair, move her chair and also to feed herself. Her mother also became more motivated, coming to realize just how able her daughter really was.”

Gaskill showed a photo of another CP sufferer, Sopo, 16, at the first ever LPT sport’s day. “She had been sitting at the side-lines in her wheelchair and one of our volunteers went over to her and asked her if she wanted to join in the relay race. As they sped across the bumpy field, the volunteer was worried Sopo would be afraid. But when she asked, Sopo replied: ‘Faster!’”

A heavier case was that of Lasha, a 20-year-old young man suffering with CP. He is bed-ridden, his limbs twisted in a way “which could have been prevented had his family known how to exercise him from an early age.”

Elvin, a 6 year old with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is something of a wild child, a “handful,” who stands every chance of being sent to an institution because his family don’t know how to handle his aggressive outbursts. He, like Ana, does not attend school and so misses out on that socialization and development aspect crucial to the upbringing of every child.

The Georgian government recently introduced a program aimed at integrating mildly disabled children into regular state kindergartens and schools. However, the teachers are not getting the training they need, nor are the schools sufficiently adapted for lesser-abled children. The idea is great, but the application needs more time, more energy, more money, and more strategic thinking.

LPT is about showing those children missing out, and their parents and able-bodied peers, what life can be with the right outlook. And it is a clear message to the government and relevant authorities that educations is, once again, key. Where funding for care is lacking, families themselves can be trained and empowered to make the lives of their disabled children better and more fulfilling.

The recent fundraising event raised 2800 GEL for the Let’s Play Together program and will go to cover LPT programming costs. This includes transportation costs for the children (approximately 60-80 at each event), food costs for the children and their parents, as well as certificates.

The next LPT day is to be held on December 3rd in Terjola, western Georgia.

The fundraising event was organized by: 

MAC came into existence in 2008 to combat a twofold problem: that children with disabilities in rural Georgia did not have access to services and that the parents and families of these children did not even know what services to expect. The founders were Cathy McLain, an educational psychologist, Roy Southworth, then Georgia Country Director for the World Bank, and Rezo Chinchaladze, an educational specialist. MAC now has a staff of seventeen and hires educated professionals from Georgia and abroad.

The McLain Association for Children is always on the lookout for volunteers. If you are interested in getting involved, or want to find out more, go to their website macgeorgia.org or contact them on facebook.

Katie Ruth Davies