History

The Abor Centre for the Handicapped, which was commissioned officially on 29th April 1989 by Lt. Gen. A. Quainoo is a voluntary and no-profit making Organisation depending on the Keta-Akatsi Diocese of the R.C. Church to cater for the welfare of the physically handicapped in the Society.

The main objectives of the Centre are:

• To welcome the physically challenged;
  
• To provide technical and vocational skills to the physically challenged,
  
• To help them to procure the basic tools and materials after their training in order to establish their own workshops, and to assist them to integrate fully into working life and the communities in which they live.
  

The role Abor St. Theresa Centre for the Handicapped in supplementing Governmental efforts in the economical, physical and social rehabilitation of the physically handicapped in the Volta Region (in Ghana generally) cannot be underrated as much has been achieved within the short period after the establishment. For instance, the first batch of 18 trainees who passed out on 20th July 1991 was successful in the NVTI Grade II examinations conducted for them at the Centre. The 18 trainees who completed the course, as a measure to resettle and integrate them fully in their various communities, were provided immediately their own tools.
In the academic year 2004/05, we had 102 students divided in disabled and able-bodied students. In December 2004, 31 of these students had their final examination for NVTI gr. I . In May-June 2005 other 67 students took their NVTI exams grade 2 & 1. From 1991 to 2004, 203 handicapped students have graduated; 165 of them have already settled with their own workshop.

Attached to the Centre there is a well-equipped physiotherapy department as well as a leather workshop for the manufacture of orthopaedic apparatus. This service is offered to our students and also to outside patients. After admission students who need orthopaedic surgery are identified. These surgeries mainly to unable cripples to make use of prosthesis and crutches are carried out on Dzodze Hospital. This help is given also to outside people in need.
Since 1990 over one hundred individuals have been sent for operations at the hospital. And in the past years, almost 60 handicapped received treatment in the physiotherapist ward, and among them 24 were operated and rehabilitated through our Centre.

Conclusion

The provision of boarding facilities, feeding, tuition and physiotherapy, tools and materials for training and the payment of salaries and allowances for the staff of the Centre has imposed heavy financial burden on the smooth running of the Centre.
The educational Award will be a national recognition of this kind of service and an encouragement to a voluntary Organisation like us seeking the interest and welfare of the disabled in the society.