www.thevillagenews.co.za
14 August 2019
Stanford’s butterly children ly high Writer Elaine Davie
T
he thing about butterlies is that they seem to celebrate each day with joy, dancing in the air, throwing all caution to the wind, despite their fragile vulnerability. And which of us can pass them by without a smile and a lifting of the heart? A visit to the Butterly Centre in Stanford has much the same efect. The 12 children, aged between 8 and 14, whose school this is, live life with an uninhibited joie de vivre which is difficult to resist. This, in spite of the learning and life skills challenges each of them has to face and overcome every day. They all live with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), to varying degrees of severity. The Butterly Centre was the brainchild of Jami Kastner of Stanford Hills Wine Estate when she was looking for and failing to find a school which would meet the needs of her young son, Jack, who had been diagnosed with this condition. She was seeking a warm and caring space where the children were understood within their unique context and where each one could be given the opportunity to develop to his or her full potential. Autistic children have a need for structure, but also the chance to explore their world in a safe and supportive environment. The centre she had in mind would meet all these requirements and, of course, offer easy access to children from Stanford, Gansbaai and even Hermanus. A tough call, but one she was up for. When the Butterly Centre opened its doors in 2014 in a rented house in Stanford, Jami did not think that there would be more than a handful of children needing its services. To her surprise, it has continued to expand year by year and now there are children on the school’s waiting list. As Jami (now Chairperson of the Butterly Foundation) says, “It has grown out of all proportion to what I envisaged, both in numbers and in scope. Some of our children had never been to school before and some had been struggling to cope within the mainstream education system; actually, I discovered there was very little understanding in the wider community of what ASD was all about. “That means that we never lose an opportunity of drawing the people of our area into our activities. It’s good for the children, too; they need to socialise and to feel that they are a part of the community. Our annual Sports Day, for instance, which takes place on the Village Green, is attended by many of the town’s people, even if they have no obvious connection to the school. The same is true of the Stanford Stumble, our main fundraising event of the year.” One of the school’s underlying strengths is its whole child focus. Because each one’s abilities, level of development and circumstances are so diferent, teaching is done largely on a one-on-one basis, following a special needs adaptive programme. Currently there are four trained teachers and one facilitator, under
The current Butterfly Centre in Stanford with some of the learners and their teachers. They plan to build a bigger and better school on the Stanford Hills Wine Estate. PHOTOS: Taylum Meyer
the guidance of Head Teacher, Sindy Farley and Acting Principal, Lee Wasserfall, a speech therapist. The teaching of general life skills is an important component of the programme. From cleaning teeth and personal hygiene to outings to the fire department and to the traffic department to learn about road safety, to gardening and the use of electronic tools like calculators (computers are on the school’s wish list), all these practical skills will equip them to fit into a wider community and to strengthen their self-confidence and self-worth. “At the very least,” says Head Teacher, Sindy, “we want them to be sufficiently literate and numerate to function reasonably independently in the wider world. We want them to embrace their uniqueness – they may be different, but they are of no less value than any other child.” Sindy’s enthusiasm is infectious: “You can’t believe how satisfying it is to see the progress some of these children have made in a surprisingly short period of time and how proud both they and their families are of their achievements. One of our children didn’t even know his alphabet when he came to us; now his parents tell me that wherever they go, he is reading street and shop signs. Most are completely different children from those who first came here… and none can wait to get back after the school holidays!” Important aspects of their educational programme are physical exercise, art and crafts and, in some cases, therapy of some kind – be it speech therapy, occupational therapy, art or music. Jami expresses her appreciation for those therapists who offer their services pro bono, but she emphasises that running a special needs school of this kind is extremely expensive. Although all the parents are expected to contribute something toward their children’s education, more than 50% of them cannot afford to pay the full fee. “We don’t yet receive a government
subsidy,” she laments, “so although we have all kinds of dreams for the extension of our programme – for example, we’d like to introduce a pre-school class, because the younger they are when they come to us, the better are their chances of making really significant long-term progress – at this stage, that is out of our reach. "At the other end of the age range, another goal is to introduce a vocational skills training element for the older children, so that there is the possibility of their leading meaningful, independent lives. Unfortunately, the biggest bugbear is always funding.” However, since the building they are in is on the market, the school’s most pressing need is to build its own premises on the Stanford Hills property. “It’s both terribly exciting and terribly scary,” says Jami. The plans have been passed, the paperwork done and it’s all systems go for a bigger and better Butterly Centre which will be able to accommodate up to 40 children. “Just think how fantastic it will be for them – all the space in the world, animals to interact with, gardening to do, all kinds of new skills to learn, and it will all be rent-free! But… there’s also the matter of R1 million to raise before we can start building. And that’s just the structure. What it will cost to equip it is more than I can bear to think about.” Jami acknowledges with gratitude the financial assistance the school continues to receive from members of the local community, together with donors from further afield, but this is an extra-big ask. There is something about butterlies, though, that speaks of faith, a joyous living of each day for its own sake. So, if watching a kaleidoscope of butterlies dip and dance on the air in free light, appeals to you, this is your unique chance to become ‘the wind beneath their wings’. Jami Kastner can be contacted on jami@stanfordhills.co.za or 082 897 2390.
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