Con Amore School (for children with special needs) is an NPO organization in Kempton Park in the field of education and therapy for children with complex disabilities. Con Amore School was established in 1975. Over the decades it has served thousands of children providing vocationally-based education involved with occupational therapists, speech therapists and social workers. Con Amore School currently serves approximately 513 children with complex disabilities, additionally providing them with social welfare and feeding support, transport, assistive devices for mobility and communication, among others. Beneficiaries are drawn from a 60-km radius around Greater East Rand. The school caters only for learners who are severely and profoundly intellectually impaired. Their impairments are often as a result of conditions such as neurodevelopmental disorders, autism spectrum disorders, various syndromes (e.g. Down’s syndrome), traumatic brain injuries, birth complications etc. Many of these learners also have physical impairments. Con Amore School focusses on holistic intervention in the lives of the learners as well as their parents and siblings. A multidisciplinary team is therefore needed to provide intervention for each learner’s unique needs. The aim of the organization is to bring every child to his or her best potential, starting as young as the age of six years until they are able to graduate from their accredited post-school program at the age of 18 years, when they can confidently become contributing and happy citizens of our country. It takes more than eight people of a wide range of specialized activities to work with a child with a combination of disabilities throughout their growing years, which is their right to become contributing and useful citizens as adults. Unfortunately, many funding sources - whether government, corporate social investment (CSI) or private - do not take this into account due to the general lack of knowledge about disability.
