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The Victory Kids Early is an intervention centre and academy for children with special social and educational needs. The organisation is registered with the Department of Education as part of the Learners with Severe and Profound Intellectual Disabilities Programme (LSPID) and the Department of Social Development as a non-profit organisation (NPO).
The organisation was founded in September 2005 by Janine Thétard and her son Joshua Thétard. Joshua had severe epilepsy and a diagnosis of autism. Before the family moved to Gqeberha in 2003, Joshua had been undergoing intensive Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy.
This type of intervention was not available in Gqeberha, and Janine felt driven to continue to provide this for her son. She then developed and implemented a similar programme herself. As she began to train facilitators to work with Joshua interest spread, not only among the students who had passion to help children with difficulties reach their true potential, but also from teachers and mothers who felt at a loss as to how to help the children in their care.
The centre started in her garage with her child, then grew to five learners, and now has 60 learners enrolled.
“We are very excited, as next year we celebrate the 20th year of existence. I have been employed at Victory Kids from the very beginning in 2005 as a tutor, starting our first class in 2006, and owning the school from 2011,” said Jade Smith.
“Victory Kids has a good reputation in the broader community, as well as in the professional medical and therapy fields. We take pride in teaching, nurturing, loving, and developing our learners.”
The organisation’s vision is to provide a caring, loving, fun, stimulating and supportive environment for children with special social and educational needs through a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach, preparing them for the future to lead independent, respectful, and productive lives in the community.
“Our goal is to prepare the young warriors to integrate into mainstream or special educational environments through individualised programmes and support structures, and our aim is to prepare learners to be able to attend a mainstream school environment or Governmental Special Needs School Environment,” Smith added.
A pressing matter for Victory Kids currently is the renovation of the new school, as well as the acquisition of computers and educational programmes to teach the children basic computer skills, as well as assistance in creating a school library.
“We would appreciate any assistance we can get from companies, individuals, and the broader community, to ensure that our school is complete and secure for all our learners, to ensure that we can provide them with a fun, loving and learning environment,” Smith pleaded.
For more info contact Jade Smith on 067 150 7902.
