« Handicap-Free Christmas 2023 » celebrated in style at CNAO

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Extract from the article: « Christmas without Handicap » was celebrated on Friday December 22 at the Centre National d'Appareillage Orthopédique (CNAO) in Lomé. The aim of this initiative is to bring joy to children with disabilities during the Christmas and New Year celebrat

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« Christmas without Handicap » was celebrated on Friday December 22 at the Centre National d'Appareillage Orthopédique (CNAO) in Lomé. The aim of this initiative is to bring joy to children with disabilities during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.   To this end, over 350 disabled children undergoing functional rehabilitation at the CNAO-Lomé received kits containing food and non-food items. This will enable them to celebrate at home.

Christmas is one of the holidays dedicated to children, bringing joy with the myth of Santa Claus and the gifts offered. However, many Togolese families with disabled children are unable to offer their offspring these moments of joy and merriment.  To fill the gap during these festive moments, the CNAO-Lomé, with the support of its partners, organized a meeting for parents and friends of disabled children undergoing functional rehabilitation at the center.  The CNAO distributed kits and numerous gifts to these children.The aim of this gesture is to enable the children to enjoy themselves and to blossom during the festive season.

For CNAO-Lomé Director Innocent Tokpessa Lakna, « it's important to bring joy to the children and parents who come to the CNAO for treatment. We want parents to feel happy with their children by living as if they had no disability. We also want to reinforce the inclusion of children with disabilities, so that they and their mothers can be effectively empowered. The aim of "Christmas without disability" is to ensure that children with disabilities do not feel marginalized, and that they can fully enjoy their rights. And, that there is inclusion between other children so that they can face the aspects of social life. »

Representatives Firakouma Mimatéa of the Haut-Commissariat à la Réconciliation et au Renforcement de l'Unité Nationale (HCRRUN) and Khadim Youck of the association « Un espoir, un sourire » expressed their gratitude to the CNAO, urging mothers to always love, pamper, cherish and care for their disabled children.

Parents of children with disabilities, like Kodjo Djossou, an auto electrician and father of Nathanaëlle, a girl with clubfoot, expressed their gratitude to CNAO for welcoming, supporting, caring for and accompanying their child. Welcoming a child with a disability, whatever the handicap, creates many upheavals and profound questions in the personal identity of the couple and the family. « Being the parent of a disabled child is difficult.I told myself that life would never be the same again. But after sessions at the CNAO, I saw an improvement.My daughter can walk.And that's a joy for me », testified Kodjo Djossou.

Valuing people with disabilities

The meeting also served to raise the mothers' awareness of the value of people with disabilities.In Togolese communities, people living with disabilities are marginalized. As a result, many parents, most of them vulnerable, often keep their children away from the gaze of others.This isolation has consequences for their children's development. « Nowadays, all disabilities can be managed and treated.When a child has a disability, it's not something to be ashamed of.We have specialized structures that can accompany and take care of these children, with a view to their integration and insertion into society », Innocent Lakna emphasized.

We need to value people living with disabilities. This is the prerequisite for building an inclusive society, or a society that does not exclude. We need to value people living with disabilities in all the country's organizations, whoever they are and wherever they are, because this is the starting point for society to take a fresh look at difference and at people who appear to be different from us.

The meeting was enhanced by performances from artists and comedians, and a sketch showing the importance of caring for children with psychomotor deficiencies.

William O.