TWO WEEKS after the Guyana Chronicle reported on the challenges faced by 12- year-old visually impaired student Roell Sumner and his brother Relon who both attend the Mackenzie High School, Roell was gifted with an audio recorder donated by a U.S.-based Guyanese on Tuesday. The recorder was presented to the youth by Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland who also made pleas for help for the differently abled children on social media.
Roell who gained 465 marks at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) is now a Form One student at the top high school in Linden but according to his mother Ronella Jarvis, the boy no longer benefiting from school as no system was in place to deal with his disability.
She described the situation as frustrating as her sons are “simply passing through school.” Jarvis said that her eldest son who is Form 4 Arts previously has a recorder but it was not as effective since most of the teachers did not use it. She is hoping that this is not the same with Roell as both boys are naturally intelligent but are being sidelined because of their disability.
The boys made it through their primary education because there is an established visually impaired unit at the Wismar Hill Primary with specialized teachers. The distraught mother is calling on the Government to provide a similar unit for high school children so that they too can get a fair chance at education similar to those in Georgetown who are successful at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC). Ronella said that she engaged several Regional Officials and Government Officials on the matter but all she receives are promises and nothing else. She already has to deal with the challenges of parenting two differently abled children and four other children at home and should not be stressing over their education as well.
For Ronella the challenges started when the eldest child was six and the older one was four. She exhausted all energies and funds on doctors trying to understand how both her sons have become blind. “When we take him to Dr. McDonald, that is when we were told that they have this congenital toxoplasmosis,” she revealed.
Congenital toxoplasmosis is a group of symptoms that occur when an unborn baby (fetus) is infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The infection can be passed to a developing baby if the mother becomes infected while pregnant. The infection spreads to the developing baby across the placenta. Most of the time, the infection is mild in the mother.
The woman may not be aware she has the parasite. However, infection of the developing baby can cause serious problems. Problems are worse if the infection occurs in early pregnancy. Ronella said that when she tested for the disease it showed a small percentage in her blood that may have been passed on to the children through pregnancy.
At this time she is happy to gain closure and try to give her children all the support she can give. She will continue to fight for them to get the education they deserve.