Noemi White

Noemi White came to Barbados as a Hungarian-Swiss in the year 2000, after having met her husband in Switzerland. She completed my BSc and MSc in Psychology and initially worked as a counsellor supporting women and children affected by domestic violence. Then she switched to work with children with neuro developmental challenges and their families at the Sunshine Early Stimulation Centre (a school for children with special needs aged 1-11), and started specializing in early child development.

It is my belief that, while she cannot change anyone around her, she can always change herself, since she is fully accountable for all her thoughts, her feelings, her words, her attitudes and her actions. Therefore she is empowered by being the 'best version of her' by assisting others around her if possible, showing support either morally or in kind.

“To be the 'best me', I also choose to take care of and be kind to my natural environment. I am an avid music consumer (not particularly talented there otherwise) and am very passionate about food, always loving the idea of trying new culinary adventures”.

At the school she works at they have an enrollment capacity of about 65 students in average. Students have diagnoses including Autism Spectrum Disorders, Sensory Processing Disorders, Cerebral Palsy, Seizure Disorders, Down syndrome and other more rare genetic disorders.

The work that she does involves: Providing parent support groups and parent workshops; Assessment and intervention with children using a developmental, play-based approach; Assisting families of children with special needs with advocacy; but also assisting families to cover some of their most basic needs. Unfortunately, nearly a third of their students are from low-income socio-economic backgrounds or even live below the poverty line.

For the latter reason, she has created a Family Services Fund -- she has taken the liberty to attach a separate write-up with its background and objectives below.

While the running cost of the school is dependent on the generous funding of private trusts and sponsors, the Family Services Fund is a separate entity for which I am currently solely responsible.

Family Services Fund

Objective

To assist selected low-income families at the Sunshine Early Stimulation Centre with one-time, goal specific projects, purchases or access to services with the intention to (a) improve the family’s chance to generate income, (b) provide necessities fulfilling the children’s basic needs, or (c) improve the children’s quality of life overall.

Background

In working closely with our families over the past eleven years, frequent situations have arisen where a family may have required small scale financial assistance in an amount which was considered too small to write an individual proposal for, but too large to be handled by the family in question. Often, these circumstances present significant hurdles for these families to be able to move to the next step in their independence or self-sufficiency along their path of providing for a child with special needs.

Over the years, typically about two-thirds to half of our Sunshine families were found to live under minimum-income conditions or experience unemployment. In September 2019, 26 of our 64 families were assessed to be in dire need for additional material/financial assistance to their households.

The Family Services Fund was established in September 2017. During its first academic year 2017-2018, approximately $3,300 was needed to assist some of the most basic needs of families (See examples below). In the second academic year 2018-2019, approximately $4,500 was spent to support our children.

While Family Services continues to do its best to liaise with other governmental or non- governmental agencies or even private persons to assist with these cases, the Family Services Fund has been a crucial area of support for our families in need.

Selection of Families and Procedure

Family Services approves access to the Family Services Fund following a needs assessment process and based on detailed knowledge of the families’ present journey and past history. The proposed project or purchase in each case and the suggested amount of money required individually has to be approved by the Principal and the Financial Manager.

Some concrete examples from the past:

- An unemployed mother who had sewing skills and who possessed an old sewing machine was trying to establish some income by making school uniforms. Her sewing machine had stopped working and needed servicing. The cost of servicing was $85, which she could not afford.

- A previously unemployed father was lucky to find a job on a plantation in St. George. From his area of domicile, however, he would have had to catch two busses to and from work every day, a weekly cost of $48. He was in the possession of a broken bicycle which could have taken him there and back. The cost of repair (new spokes) was $34 which he could not afford. He was also in need of a pair of shoes suitable for work on a plantation, since his only two pairs of foot wear were a pair of slippers and a pair of church shoes. The Salvation Army and Barbados Red Cross Society did not have shoes in his size.

- A boy with Autism with severe sensory seeking behaviours was deprived of much needed physical, proprioceptive and vestibular stimulation while at home during vacation and weekends. The child spent his time in a small house with little room to manoeuvre. A small trampoline could provide this child with much needed input to his brain and body without requiring much space.

- A no-income family had a goal to create a tyre garden in their back yard in order to grow some of their own vegetables and seasoning herbs. The family could not afford to obtain soil to fill the tyres.

- The stove of one family living in great poverty broke apart due to large amounts of rust. When their appointment at the Welfare Department was deferred, Family Services managed to organize the donation of a functioning second-hand stove, but three out of four burner tops were missing. The cost per burner top was $48, a cost the family could not afford.

- A family with 4 children was awaiting much needed food vouchers from the Welfare Department. Groceries and toiletries were provided for this family.

- School shoes, uniforms, school bags and books are a regular requirement for many of our families who live below the poverty line.

- Many of our students with sensory processing challenges cannot handle long waiting hours at a polyclinic to be seen for dental care. Additionally, many public dentists do not provide services for children with challenges based on their unique behaviours. Some of our children have been supported with emergency dental intervention.

Evaluation

A financial report will be provided to our generous sponsors at the end of each fiscal/academic year (as requested). We would be very grateful for any contribution towards this cause.