Children with developmental disabilities are set to benefit from a $98 000 Legacy Foundation grant supporting a collaborative initiative between the Rotary Club of Barbados South and the Albert Cecil Graham Development Centre.
The project will establish a sensory room that provides a safe, multisensory therapeutic environment for children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays, and related challenges.
Chairman of the Legacy Foundation, Ayodele Burrowes, told journalists on Friday that the project will benefit children with developmental disabilities and their families.
“It supports empowerment by improving access to services for children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays, and related challenges, and it supports learning by helping children build regulation, communication, and developmental skills in a more effective, responsible and responsive setting.”
Burrowes highlighted the importance of funding such a project due to the genuine need.
“The existing therapy rooms at the development centre are oversubscribed, and families are currently facing delays in accessing services. That means children who could benefit from timely intervention are often forced to wait, and that is precisely the kind of gap we seek to help address through our charitable grant. A sensory room is more than a physical space—it is a therapeutic tool.
“It creates an environment where trained clinicians can support children in ways that are responsive to their needs, helping them regulate, communicate and engage more fully in the therapeutic process.
“For families, it represents hope. It represents a more dignified service experience, and it represents a better chance of children to access the support they need when they need it.”
Burrowes said the sensory room would enhance therapy, improve clinical outcomes, expand the centre’s capacity to serve more children, support clinicians with an improved therapeutic environment and promote equitable access to high-quality care.
Minister of Health and Wellness, Senator Lisa Cummins, commended the foundation for its contribution, underscoring the importance of civil society, service organisations, clubs and groups investing in agencies like the Albert Cecil Graham Development Centre, as well as other state institutions through financial contributions and the provision of resources.
The centre sees around 610 children, said Senator Cummins, and some “164 families who have the benefit of support coming in. That arguably is a drop in the bucket of what is actually needed, because that’s just one facility, and that’s just the government’s facility, but facilities like the schoolhouse for special needs also will have its capacity.”
She confessed that the demand far exceeds the current capacity.
“It’s hard when you are a mommy or a daddy, and you need to be able to support your child to provide the resources for your child, but they’re not readily available. I remember when the waiting lists for children to enter some of these facilities were 7 years long, 9 years long, and that really was a function of capacity.”
Procurement and installation are planned between May and September, so the room will be ready for the new school term, Burrowes said.
“We believe that the Albert Cecil Graham Development Centre Sensory Room project will demonstrate what is possible when organisations come together with shared purpose and a genuine desire to serve. It is a reminder that inclusion is not an ideal. It is something we must actively build,” said Burrowes.
President of the Rotary Club of Barbados South, Jacklyn Broome, explained that the project is about giving children better opportunities to learn, communicate and thrive:
“This project was never simply about equipment or infrastructure; it was about giving children additional tools to learn, grow, communicate and thrive. It was about supporting families who navigate these challenges every day, and it was about reinforcing a simple truth that inclusion is not achieved through words alone, but it requires investment, commitment and action.”
Coordinator of the centre, Bridget Austin, explained the impact of the project on the children and their families:
“This relaxing environment can also stimulate reactions in the client and encourage communication. This donation is not just providing material, it is providing hope and opportunity for the clients of the Albert Cecil Graham Development Centre and, by extension, the children of the disabled community of Barbados.”
The Albert Graham centre provides assessment and therapeutic services for children with developmental delays, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, intellectual or learning challenges, specific learning disabilities, communication disorders and congenital syndromes.
(LG)
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