As there is now a nice video about the activities club on the website, I of course should also give you a more verbal account how the the activities club is faring.
We started the actvities club because there are no facilities in Juigalpa for (young) adults with an intellectual disability to be meaningfully engaged in something stimulating. Most of them spend their lives passively at home. The aim of the club is to offer our particpants activities at their level and to give them a sense of being valuable in society. The society is often harsh, as it judges people on what they cannot do, rather than on what they can do. Let’s not forget that most of us have one or more shortcomings.
This year we went back to running the activites centre only in the afternoons 2-5 pm. During that time we work with different groups of a maximum of 6 participants. Most of the participants are from relatively poor families, and only some of them live in our neighbourhood. This means that most participants need to be dropped off and collected by family members as we do not have a vehicle to do this for the families. That’s OK for now: we do not charge anything for the club and it keeps the families involved. However, the downside is the attendance of many participants is erratic as families are busy with their own lives and do not or cannot always give priority to the needs of their disabled family member. So in the near future we ought to think of alternatives.
The programme
We start the club session by looking at who is present and who has stayed at home. We do this with pictures. Then we focus on what day of the week it is. We have a well structured plan for the afternoon with fixed activities. Every activity has its own pictogram which is clearly displayed and changed when we start a new activity. Most activities take about 20 minutes: drawing, making music, doing puzzles or building with blocks. Of course we take into account the skills of our particpants and their powers of concentration. We use a count-down timer (pinger) to help particpants transit from one activity to the next. (I bought a pinger from the Netherlands as they are hard to find here!) We stop for a drink break at some stage, and the participants take it in turns to bring a drink for the group from their home. Some time ago we prepared part of our garden as a nursery for our participants to work in. At the end of the afternoon we make piñatas, an activity especially suited to participants with limited motor skills. We sell the finished products in some shops in town which draws wider attention to the work of our participants and improves the image people have of people with an intellectual disability. Everyone leaves after we have sung our farewell song.
New person-in-charge
It has been a struggle, but today the good news is that we have found a new person who can be in charge of the activities club! This is really essential in order to improve the quality of what we offer, to contemplate expanding our service and to find creative solutions to problems we meet on our way. So let’s wish Iveth well in her one-month probation period and let’s hope she will soon feel at home with us!