Ananzi co-sponsors a child with the Dore Programme
The child, Donnoven, developed severe hearing loss as a result of contracting malaria at the age of two and a half. This has affected other areas of functioning, including communication and processing of information. Donnoven’s parents have taken a strong stand in ensuring that his learning difficulties are addressed in a drug-free manner. This has included occupational therapy and speech therapy. He has now started the Dore Programme through the Ananzi and Dore sponsorship.
Dore: a medication-free programme for learning difficulties
The Dore Programme (www.dore.co.za) is an international, fully researched developmental programme for children with learning difficulties.
The first Dore centre was established in the UK in 2000, and since then thousands of children around the world have benefited from successful completion of the programme.
At the heart of the programme are physical and mental exercises that are designed to “hard wire” and fine tune the brain’s skilled learning centre, so that learning becomes easy and automatic – leading to optimal reading, handwriting, spelling, attention and memory performance.
Donnoven’s progress blog
Donnoven’s mother has started a blog to log his progress and to share the process with others who may be faced with similar challenges, and with the South African public as a whole. Her open, honest and unflinching approach to the blog mirrors her approach to tackling Donnoven’s learning difficulties, and gives insight into an often misunderstood area of child development. In a world where the medical and teaching professions have come to resort too automatically and easily to the catch-all label of “ADHD”, she provides practical and encouraging information on how she and Donnoven are confronting their challenges in a way that is attuned to everyday reality. You can follow their progress at www.ananzitalk.co.za
Tie-in with Ananzi Education
Sharon Knowles, Online Media Manager for Ananzi, comments that this is yet another way in which the company is taking specific, real-world action that ties in with its Ananzi Education website. “We launched the website in collaboration with edusphere as our way of helping to address the broader education challenges in South Africa,” she explains. “At the same time I am very pleased that we are also tackling the challenge at an individual level and are able to make a difference in an individual family’s life by helping to put a child through the Dore Programme.”
