FFG met Patrick last year and we are so pleased to have the opportunity to meet this incredible boy and his family. What better week to share Patrick’s story and seek sponsorship – than on the week of his 16th Birthday! Patrick is an incredibly intelligent and interesting boy, he displays savant skills with an innate ability to perform rapid calculation, including multiplication, division and he can tell you the day of any given date.
Patrick has a physical disability and sadly, due to the stigma in Ghana and Mum not knowing what best to do to help her son, Patrick has never been to school or had access to appropriate education, medical care or therapy to enable him to thrive. Prior to 2020, Mum had only tried spiritual and herbal methods of healing for Patrick. He spent most of his days sitting and listening to his radio learning about the world and he has this incredible memory where he remembers everything he ever hears. Family First recognise the great potential Patrick and his family have and want to help them get the specialist care they need.
Patrick has several contractures to his joints, a contracture is where a joint becomes permanently fixed in a bent or straightened position, completely or partially restricting the movement of the affected joint. Patrick’s contractures mean he is unable to walk and do a lot of basic self-care activities. Following 6 months of serial casting, Patrick is now having weekly Physiotherapy sessions where Bismark is working with Patrick to reduce stiffness of joints and he now has greater control over his knee joint movement. Patrick is also working on being able to pull himself up to stand and increasing his weight bearing on his right leg. We are currently arranging for Patrick to have surgery on his left ankle and following this he will need orthotics to enable him to stand with support. Patrick spends most of his day sitting in a wheelchair and has a slight scoliosis to his spine so we are having an adaptable chair and table made locally which will offer Patrick postural support, and let him access a range of learning activities.
Slide for more pictures
Patrick is also currently having regular tutoring and Speech and Language Therapy to develop his clarity of speech, vocabulary and academics, as well as engaging in fine motor activities and daily living skills. And excitingly, Patrick has just been accepted to start at a mainstream government school, which hosts both academic and social opportunities which Patrick craves. The school transition will be done gradually to develop his confidence and we will work alongside the school to ensure Patrick has special measures in place to access the curriculum.
Now that Patrick's plan is in place and we see how he could thrive with all of this regular support - we will need to seek sponsorship to make it possible. As you can see Patrick has great potential, but his needs are also high and therefore the sponsorship we need to cover his interventions is high. We hope we could split the sponsorship between several sponsors. Please get in contact if you would like to be involved in Patrick's sponsorship (any amount will make a massive difference) and to follow his progress and development that we are sure he will make in abundance.
Sponsorship will cover:
Weekly Physiotherapy and Speech and Language Therapy
Nutritional Support - Project Peanut Butter School support
Please get in touch or check out Patrick's page if you would like to sponsor him: