Play is especially important for children with special needs, so our Club was delighted to be able to support Honey Bears Nursery (a specialist day nursery that helps such children) with funds to buy a swing and other special equipment.
The nursery helps children with special educational needs, physical disabilities and various neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and epilepsy. Intensive one-to-one therapy through play helps with therapy for the children. The nursery also offers services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy (depending an a child's needs), while parents are offered guidance and support.
Rotarians Bob Anderson and Deborah Connolly visited the nursery, based in the Children’s Assessment Centre at Kent & Canterbury Hospital, and got a chance to look around the facilities and see the specialist swing and other equipment bought with a £700 grant from our Rotary Club (organised via our Community Service Committee).
After Bob and Deborah's visit we were also pleased to receive an email from Jane Flockhart, the Early Intervention Nursery Manager, to thank us for the donation to their setting. She says, "The Honey Bears Early intervention is a unique service run by East Kent Hospitals here in Canterbury; it provides early intervention therapy through play within a nursery setting so that families can access a team around the child approach" adding that "The swing will provide a sensory experience to those children who require therapy through movement as they have severe and complex needs that require a different and supportive approach, thus giving our families what other families take for granted". She closes her lovely message by saying that Honey Bears Nursery "aim to make a difference."
We wish them the very best in their efforts.
Picture: Jane Flockhart, Manager of the Nursery, pictured with the swing. Picture credit: Honey Bears Nursery/Rotary Club of Canterbury, Kent, UK.
