DESCRIBED as the place with the magic touch, the Assessment and Guidance Centre in Kingston is on a mission to transform the lives of its disabled students — equipping them with the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude that will help them to better function in a society in which they are often marginalised.

For some, the centre is a place where they discover and learn new things, the simple things in life that able-bodied individuals often take for granted. For others, it is the home that they have never had, where love is abundant — a place free from abuse and neglect.

“It is nice being here. Mi learn to write my name and a lot of new things like woodwork and me can work and earn mi own money and the teachers make me feel happy,” said Rupert Dawkin, a 40-year-old student and part-time office attendant at the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities.

“I like the school so far. It is different for me because when I’m at home I feel bored and I don’t go nowhere but since me come here, Miss always bring we out at Christmastime,” said another student, 27-year-old Gillian Brown.

On the downside, Brown said she has to deal with the constant teasing from her male schoolmates, who often express their desires to marry and bear a child with her.

“But me a listen to Queen Ifrica [song that says] ‘no bwoy cyaan draw me round no corner…,” Brown said, quoting lyrics from the song that was earlier playing on a music box made by one of the students, Marvin Reid, an aspiring electrician.

At the head of the transformation process –which often takes years for some and a lifetime for others — is Patricia Gordon, the acting centre manager whose greatest achievement is the simple progress made by each student from one stage to another.

“In the full sense of the world they may not be able to read and write, but our greatest achievement is to see the changes that have been made when you look at the stage at which they came into the centre,” Gordon told the Observer.

“The most rewarding thing for me is to know that one of my students will be able to go on the road and be independent and handle the challenges,” she added.

Some of her achievements so far include students gaining confidence and being able to strike up a conversation with their peers and others without being shy and flustered, and being able to light a stove or to simply register a complaint.

Last Tuesday when the Observer visited the centre, several students filed steadily in and out of Gordon’s office — one of them a young girl, barely able to speak.

But Gordon said the girl had made much progress since she entered the centre, as she could not pronounce a word when she registered at the institution and would often shy away from others.

In addition to her, Gordon said there were others who had moved on from the centre and had gained places at the Abilities Foundation while others had started their own businesses or moved on into factory settings.

“There is a lot of love and magic in this centre,” she said proudly.

She recalled the situation with a past student who had a urine problem and had to wear a urine bag, but was now married and had his own computer repair shop.

But the easy-going and good-natured matron, who has been at the centre for the past 14 years, said that although it is sometimes difficult to cope with the students because of their rude behaviour at times, she understood better than anyone else their struggles and frustration as she too had to cope with living with a disability.

Nevertheless Gordon, an epileptic, said there was a need for the students to be trained, rehabilitated and educated to help in their development as independent individuals.

As such, the centre currently caters to 25 students with varying disabilities, from the ages of 17 to 45 years. They are trained in woodwork, papier mache and food preparation.

Art therapy is also a part of the students’ curriculum.

“I try to counsel them to deal with their limitations as best as possible and to deal with the negatives, as a lot of them are neglected at home,” Gordon said. “Their parents leave them up like cats and sometimes they are not given anything to eat and are left at home on their own.”

She said she has also tried to motivate and to counsel the parents to take better care of their disabled children and to try to assist in their development.

Gordon said her dream is to train her students in the use of the computer. But that will remain only a dream for now as the school has no computers. The building is also in need of repairs.

“We need the roof to fix because when it rains we are flooded out and we need some more desks and chairs so that we can even take in some more students,” Gordon further appealed.