Accra, April 16, GNA - Mrs. Salome Fran=E7ois, President of Parents Association of Children with Intellectual Disability (PACID), on Wednesday advised parents with children with special needs not to lock them up in rooms but provide them with the much needed love and attention. Mrs. Fran=E7ois, who is also the proprietress of New Horizon Special School, said, gone were the days when parents of such children disowned them or did not include them among their children but saw them as social outcasts. She gave the advice when Ms. Esther Baiden-Afriyie, Executive Director of Fo Francis Foundation, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), presented cash of GH¢150 to the school at Cantonments in Accra.

Mrs. Fran=E7ois said the goal of PACID was to bring together parents and guardians of children and adults with intellectual disability, give support, education and guidance to its members and together fight for the rights of their special children. "PACID would also promote a better understanding and acceptance by the general public about the nature and causes of intellectual disability and autism, the needs and problems of its victims," she said. Ms. Baiden-Afriyie, who is also a Ghanaian Philanthropist based in London, said she was touched by a documentary she watched on the school about intellectual disability and autism. Meanwhile, Fo Francis Foundation has also presented 200 GH cedis to the Remar Christian Rehabilitation Centre at Adabraka.

Ms. Baiden-Afriyie said it was in fulfilment of her promise that anytime she visited Ghana, she would make a donation to them no matter how small. She said even though she had a lot of assorted items, including used clothes, she could not bring them due to the high cost of clearing of goods at the port. She appealed to the authorities to make goods meant for charity tax-exempt. Mr. Ouedraogou Baovede Wagre, Country Director of Remar, thanked the foundation and appealed to others to donate to the organisation.