Launched in September 2017, the Abel Program is an outreach initiative aimed at improving the quality of life of children with special needs in the Livingstonia community of Northern Malawi. Children with limited mobility often have no way of attending school, and there is generally no support for those with intellectual disabilities. Starting with 10 kids in one village, they are now over one hundred across 30 km.

The truth is that these children are very vulnerable. Confined to their homes, they often lack interaction with peers or other stimuli to motivate them. Their parents need to work their fields and are not always able to take them along, so some of them are left alone and immobile for the whole day, sometimes longer, rain or shine. There are heartbreaking cases in our community of young girls with intellectual disabilities being taken advantage of, and ending up with babies that they are not able to care for. The need for refuge and support for children like this is imperative.  

So 12 ladies from the community, including our occupational therapist, cover dozens of kilometres to go to their homes and teach them, read, paint, count, sing, exercise and play with them. And if the parents are away, they are called to care for them. They motivate them to go outside and become part of their community, encouraging them to dream and make plans for their futures. Not only do these ladies offer a place of support to the children in their homes, but they are there as mothers, as someone to trust and confide in.

The Abel Program is named for Abel Msiska, a young boy with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who, having his lessons at home, was effectively the school's first student a year before the program was developed for the rest of the community. Rest in peace, Abel.