Don’t let that shy smile fool you; Halima is one brave and outspoken little girl, but we suppose that comes with being the youngest child in a family of 13! She is one of the full-time students at the Ubuntu Life Foundation Special Needs Centre. Her family brought Halima to Ubuntu when she was five years old because she was not reaching the developmental milestones that her siblings were - she could not perform tasks that other peers her age had mastered, such as grooming herself. The school she was attending was not equipped to give her the attention that she needed to advance, so she was sent home.
To make matters more difficult for Halima and her family, she was also suffering from seizures, which set her back even further from reaching those developmental milestones so critical for her age.
Eventually, Halima’s family was referred to Ubuntu. Halima was admitted to both the Individualized Education Program and the Health Program, allowing her to receive specialized healthcare, neurological medications that have greatly controlled her seizures, and daily care from our team of special needs educators and caretakers.
It has been 3 ½ years since Halima joined us, and we are thrilled to report that as well as having her seizures controlled, she has bridged all of her developmental gaps and can now perform tasks in line with peers her age. We are looking forward to engaging her in the local mainstream curriculum to have the educational foundation to join a mainstream school someday soon.
