Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Dakar (Agenzia Fides) – In Senegal many women refuse to take mentally disabled children on public transport; families hide children with mental or neurological disorders, and some parents disown them outright. According to the latest WHO global burden of disease statistics, from 2004, 13.4 million people in Africa had unipolar depressive disorders, 7.7 million epilepsy, 2.7 million bipolar affective disorder and 2.1 million schizophrenia. In Senegalese society it is quite difficult to have a child with a mental disorder. The prevailing belief is that it is a curse; it is difficult to get family and friends to accept such a child. Another common belief is that the mother was unfaithful in the marriage, and a child with such a condition is a punishment from God. There is not enough aid or facilities for these mentally disabled people. The only school for them in the country is the Education and Training Centre for the Mentally Disabled (CEFDI).
The education ministry has no national statistics on the number of mentally handicapped children. In 2009 CEFDI had to turn away 54 of the 81 children who applied from all over the country because the facility could not accommodate any more new students. When registration for the 2010-11 academic year opened, 20 families came to register children in just two days. Senegal has five private institutions for mentally handicapped children – four in Dakar and one in the northern city of Saint Louis - but many families cannot afford them. CEFDI, which takes children with Down's syndrome, epilepsy, and a variety of other disorders, has two specialists and three other teachers, who have not been trained to teach mentally or neurologically disabled children, to educate 109 students from four to 20 years old. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 2/9/2010)
