THE Rural Services for Children with Disabilities (RSCD) wants to raise $3 million within the next two months to continue providing help to severely disabled children and their families.

The non-profit, charitable agency, which currently oversees the care of 800 severely disabled children in six rural parishes, yesterday launched a major celebrity walkathon and issued a desperate appeal for help.

“If we don’t help the parents, they won’t help their children,” said RSCD board member, Dr Barbara Matalon at the launch at The Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston.

Government is now the main sponsor for the almost 25 year-old organisation. Over the years, private sponsorship has declined and this year the total funding fell way below the $5-million budgeted, Dr Matalon said.

She cited salaries for trainers, physiotherapists and four community health trainers as major items in the budget, which amount to approximately $336,405 each month. This does not include basic costs such as transportation and training and the additional funding needed to expand its services beyond the six parishes it now covers — St Elizabeth, Hanover, Westmoreland, St James, Trelawny and St Ann.

The celebrity walkathon is scheduled for September 21 and will start at 9:00 am on Constant Spring Road, culminating in Half-Way Tree.

Minister of education, youth and culture, Burchell Whiteman; international reggae artiste, Shaggy; actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and Miss Jamaica 2002, Sanya Hughes, will participate in the walk. The RSCD has also planned a party that will precede the celebrity walk, several simultaneous fund-raising community activities and walkathons in a number of the rural parishes as well.

The RSCD was formerly the Private Voluntary Organisation Limited (PVO). It started in the late 1970s when directors and heads of eight private agencies joined forces after a survey showed that only 2.6 per cent of approximately 81,000 children with disabilities, from mainly the urban areas, were registered in education programmes. They felt concerned that the vast majority of children and their families living in rural areas were having difficulty receiving care and help.

Since then, the PVO has assessed more than 6,000 children in eight parishes, providing, among other things, training for the parents; screening, rehabilitative and medical care for the children, as well as food and equipment such as calipers, special boots, wheelchairs, hearing aids and walkers for the children.

One of its major achievements has been to provide project grants for a number of unemployed parents, who have used the money to start home-based income-generating projects. About 60 per cent of the parents now receiving support are single mothers who are unemployed because they have to stay at home to care for their children.

Dr Lundie Richards, the main speaker at the launch and acting director of the National Blood Transfusion Service, noted that most children with disabilities are neglected by parents and the society.

“Some parents think it is a curse to have a disabled child. The children are ridiculed by those around them and they suffer various types of abuses.”

Dr Richards called on the Government to do much better in its contribution to organisations for the disabled.

But Floyd Morris, minister of state in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security responded to his comment, stating that with the decline of both local and international funding more individuals and organisations have been gravitating towards the Government for help.

“With 20-odd different organisations for the disabled, we have to be splitting funds,” he said.

Dr Richards was, however, unsparing in his criticism of several large corporations, some of which he said have benefitted from financial bailouts in the past.

“Sometimes I ask, ‘Why is it that these huge companies put on, every day, 12, 13, 15 … 100 ads on TV?’ Instead of putting on 100, put on 99 and contribute that money to a worthy cause as this. They will find they will get better promotion, better sales.”

Dr Lundie also called on members of society to discontinue ridiculing children with disabilities. “It’s full time we all decide to contribute and we should each ask ourselves, ‘what can I do today to make somebody else’s life better, especially those who were not born normal’?”