Our Amazing Journey: Transforming Dreams into Reality
In the face of limited resources, we transformed an old cottage into a vibrant school, where dreams flourish and brilliance shines. With unwavering dedication and community support, we painted walls with love and adorned rooms with hope. Our journey, fueled by passion, defied challenges, and nurtured a resilient spirit. Together, we created a haven of learning, where barriers turned into bridges and opportunities bloomed. This humble space symbolizes the power of belief, resilience, and collective action. As we celebrate our amazing journey, we continue to pave the way for a brighter future, where every child’s potential is unlocked and their unique talents embraced.
When we started
- We started with bare premises in a small residential cottage behind our mother in laws house, and only furniture and a few toys contributed by ourselves and our families.
- The bedrooms and living room became our classrooms and administration area.
- Our only students were two boys, Tawana (Chinhaire) and Tanatswa (Tirivanhu).
- We had 6 volunteers including ourselves.
- Everything was 100% voluntary and we carried all costs from our own pockets.
In 2015 a donation from Rotary allowed our staff to travel to and be trained in South Africa on interventions called “Visual Over Verbal”, based on the TEACCH methodology. This method uses visual schedules and prompts as important tools, and takes a structured approach to teaching and learning.
We began to grow. And Professor Martin Schmidt visited us from Germany in 2016. That was the beginning of specialised expert support and training for our staff and help to the community, through the German community. Each year, Professor Schmidt, a renowned psychiatrist, and Roswitha Nass, an expert special needs educationalist, visited us from Germany, at first with sponsorship from the German sponsor Misereor and thereafter, from SES (“Senior Experten Service”).
Our organisation is now able to offer individualised educational development plans including hand-on-hand work on cognitive tasks, activities of daily living, fine and gross motor and social skills, through a small team of dedicated qualified professional staff who have been trained in autism-specific interventions. As most of our children are on the severe end of the autism spectrum, and are non-verbal, we use as close as possible to a 1:1 child/adult ratio for day to day tasks.
Pathways Today
- We continued to receive more visits from Professor Schmidt and Roswitha Nass, as well as Yolanda Nass, who is also a special needs educationalist.
- We received help from SES, and from the Dominican Sisters in Germany and Zimbabwe.
- Our programme has become more formalised and we do periodic evaluations of the children’s progress with input from Professor Schmdt and Roswitha Nass.
