Mother of 4 children with special needs rescued from suicide attempt

Mrs Golda Nunoo, Mother of four children, all with special needs, has been rescued from a suicide attempt by members of a support group she belongs to.

Mrs Nunoo made a frantic call to one of the members of the Special Mothers Group Madam Linda Clarke amidst tears that someone in her neighborhood has been constantly ruining insults on her, referring to her as “mother of mad children”.

She thus decided to end it all for herself and three of the children currently living with her. When Madam Linda Clarke and Mrs Ellen Affam-Dadzie both members of the Special Mothers group, got to her house in Ashiaman, a suburb of Tema, she had locked two of the children in a room and had left to a church with the two year old son to say her last prayers to God.

According to Golda, she has been shunned completely by people in the area. Golda, 36 years, said: “No one talks to me, even if I am holding money to buy things people refuse to accept the money, they call me the curse one, saying I have given birth to mad children, I feel very isolated and want to move away from this neighbourhood.”

Mrs Hannah Awadzi, initiator of the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy, said the project was introduced to Golda about two years ago when she gave birth to her last son with severe club foot.

“We tried to no avail to get the children into schools, even with a letter from the Ghana Education Service Special Education Unit, the children were refused admission,” Mrs Awadzi said.

Two years ago Ghana launched the Inclusive Education Policy supposed to ensure that all children go to school regardless of their disabilities; however, many parents of children with special needs think that the policy is not inclusive enough.

Majority of children with special needs in Ghana are refused admission even in government schools Golda spends the whole of her life attending to her four children, three of them non-verbal and she is unable to work, her husband even though very supportive earns only 200 cedis a month as a security man.

Her first child has been adopted by her brother to lessen the burden on her Mrs Awadzi called on the Department of Social Welfare, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists and corporate organizations to come to the aid of Golda.