Tomorrow's People School

My wife, Charlaine, bless her heart, is a teacher for grade 3s, and also head of department for the junior phase (grade 0-3) at her school, Tomorrow's People Primary School, here in Pretoria, South Africa.

It is a Christian school for disabled children of all types. They accept normal children, children with learning disabilities, ADD, autistic, Down Syndrome, and up to children with cerebral palsy.

The idea behind the school is to normalise their education as much as possible, and even to get some to progress to the standard of normal schools. Obviously it depends very much on the individual child.

Obviously, schools like these are not cheap to run and they are always in need of one thing or another.

DISCLAIMER: I was not asked or approached by anyone from the school, not even my wife, to garner support for the school. I simply have noticed a need in the school.

A school like this needs finances to buy specialised computers with special software, for those that do not have the ability to write with their hands and therefore needs to be able to do class work on these special computers with special keyboards.

As a Christian school, Biblical principles are followed in their treatment of children. No child is seen as just another student.

My wife had only 6 children in her class this year (2007), as they were the difficult children in terms of abilities and disabilities. So many times my wife came home thinking that she was not making an impact on these children, just to be amazed a few days later at what they actually achieved.

Because one class could have children of such vastly different capabilities, teachers need to be acutely aware of how to handle each child's education. This calls for teachers with special abilities. That, in turn, leads to higher salaries, which the school can't afford, as their budget does not allow for it, since the school tries to keep school fees as low as possible to keep it affordable for the parents.

It would be nice to find sponsors for this school to be able to buy the specialised computer equipment for these special children, and also to be able to attract specialised teachers into the school.

If you have contact with anyone that may perhaps help in sponsorship, it would be greatly appreciated. Simply point them my way, and I will put them in contact with the owners of the school. It really doesn't matter if the sponsorship comes from within or from outside of South Africa.

Thanks for your time!