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Liztino Centre …Safe haven for autistic children
●Mrs Angel Bertino
The Liztino Centre for Children with Special Needs has over the past decade become a safe haven for children born with autism disorder spectrum.
The centre, a parent’s quest to support an autistic child to live a normal life, had since been providing comfort and hope to families that have children with special needs.
Mrs Elizabeth Angel Acquah Bertino founded the centre in 2016, few years after his child, Phil Bertino was diagnosed of autistic disorder.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a development disability caused by differences in the brain. People with the disorder often have problems with social communication and interaction and restricted or repetitive behaviours or interests.
People with the disorder may also have different ways of learning, moving or paying attention. It is important to note that some people without the disorder might also have some of these symptoms but for people with the disorder, these characteristics could make life very challenging.
Some of the characteristics include, delayed language skills, delayed movement skills, delayed cognitive or learning skills, hyperactive, impulsive and/or inattentive behaviour.
Epilepsy or seizure disorder, unusual eating and sleeping habits, gastrointestinal issues (for example constipation), unusual mood or emotional reactions, anxiety, stress or excessive worry as well as lack of fear or more fear than usual are also some of the signs associated with it.
Following the success of the centre in transforming her now 16-year-old ward to live a normal life and gradually on his way to full recovery, Mrs Bertino decided to stretch her hands to other children through several awareness campaigns and services at her centre.
The campaigns engaged students, homes, companies and people on the streets as part of efforts to demystify the myths surrounding children with autism.
Some of the myths include autism is caused by vaccines, autism is a spiritual problem and people with the condition do not deserve to live (especially in Africa), autism is a childhood condition, autistic people have learning difficulties and autism is caused by bad parenting.
Her approach to dealing with the condition is basically accessing a child’s current situation, engage in therapy and most importantly dieting which could provide a great deal of transformation to the child.
For Mrs Bertino, the most important part of the healing process was dieting as it reduces the hyperactive behaviour and positions the person in a condition that could lead to other therapies required to manage the condition.
Mrs Bertino insists on early recognition as well as behavioural, educational and family therapies that had over the years helped in reducing the symptoms and support development and learning.
Essentially, her therapies that have been used at the facility following research and education ranges from anger management, family therapy, applied behaviour analysis, behavioural therapy, sensory processing and exercising.
For anger management, she practices mindfulness, coping mechanisms and trigger avoidance to minimise destructive emotional outbursts and with family therapy, psychological counselling that helps families resolve conflicts, feel better about the situation and communicate more effectively.
Applied behaviour analysis is also used as a teaching method that helps autistic children learn socially relevant skills by encouraging positive behaviour while behavioural therapy focuses on modifying harmful characters associated with psychological distress.
She also emphasises on sensory processing which deals with the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into appropriate motor and behavioural responses.
She also turned one of her hobbies-cooking, into providing adequate diets for patients under her care. For example, she bakes sugar-free bread which has essential ingredients including honey since sugar might trigger hyperactive behaviours.
She also loves to read which helped with engaging in research online to improve upon her works while exercising is her personal attribute which also translate into therapy for her patients.
She currently has over 20 children under her care at her facility which she operates at her residence in Adenta.
Mrs Bertino also loves to spend time with his family of five (a supportive husband, a precious son and two lovely daughters).
Mrs Bertino is a preacher of love and is of the view that love was the greatest gift humans can give to one another – an approach she uses in dealing with the patients that throng her facility on daily basis.
While engaging in her awareness creation and providing care for children with autism at her facility, she calls for support from the government and corporate entities to provide better conditions for people with autism disorder.
She essentially called on teachers and caregivers to treat people with autism with love and care as that would help them integrate into society and become better.
In a way to give back to society, aside the annual awareness creation campaigns which is usually used to donate items to the needy in society, she also holds regular ‘Liztino Special Tutorials’ to teach people about autism in areas of understanding the disorder, early detection, some treatment and special diet.
“Together we can provide the support, love, care and attention to people with autism and make the world a better place for all as disability is never an inability because there is something good in every child,” she said.
By Michael D. Abayateye
Madam Sandra Seyram Kpedor, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Anloga in the Volta Region, has emphasised the importance of parental involvement in children’s education, stating that education is free, but parents need to do more to support their children.
She said parents, teachers, and students must be involved in addressing the challenges facing the district’s education sector, particularly the poor Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results.
Madam Kpedor outlined some key roles parents should play to promote their children’s education, including providing a conducive learning environment, monitoring their children’s progress, and supporting teachers.
The DCE highlighted some challenges the district faced such as inadequate infrastructure and a shortage of teachers, which have also contributed to the poor BECE results and called on well-to-do parent to help solve the situation through and other supports.
To address the issues, she also announced that plans have been taken to utilise the district’s common fund to implement educational projects, such as constructing school blocks and teachers’ bungalows at Sodzi community, and 2-unit classroom blocks each at Akplorwutorkor and Tegbi-Afedome respectively, among others.
Madam Kpedor also noted that her office had earlier notified the Ministry of Education to deploy more teachers to the area to improve teaching and learning, and encouraged students to work hard and strive for excellence, and work beyond their limit to succeed.
“To my wonderful and beautiful girls, you have to know it clear that women and girls have equal opportunities to compete with men for greater achievements,” she indicated.
The DCE cited her own achievement as a testament to the fact that women can excel in leadership positions, alongside Vice President Nana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, and stressed that girls were no longer limited to domestic roles but can pursue their dreams and become leaders.
Additionally, she mentioned that a meeting was held earlier with assembly members, and other stakeholders to address the district’s educational challenges and improve academic performance.
She promised that the district’s education oversight committee and stakeholders would work together to address the challenges and improve the district’s BECE results and called for parental involvement and support to boost the district’s education sector for children to chase their dreams to become future leaders for the success of the district and the nation.
She urged parents not to leave everything to the government but rather help in the provision of some necessary materials such as textbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, food, and guidance to children for the successes of young learners. –GNA
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The spokesperson for Dr. Bawumia, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has criticised the implementation of the NDC government’s No Fee Stress policy, arguing that the programme has failed to deliver on its core promise.
According to him on Starr fm, the policy, which was introduced to ensure stress free payment of fees for level 100 tertiary students, has rather turned into what he described as post stress support.
He explained that students are required to pay their fees first before applying for reimbursement, a situation he believes defeats the purpose of the policy.
He questioned claims by government officials that the policy has been successful and that citizens are happy.
In his view, such claims do not reflect the lived realities of many Ghanaians. He stressed that while some people may appear satisfied, many others continue to struggle.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye pointed to the situation of trained teachers and nurses who have been picketing for nearly six months, demanding employment.
He noted that government responses suggesting it cannot accommodate all of them contradict claims of economic stability.
He further argued that economic indicators such as a stable currency mean little to people who are unable to secure jobs or access promised support.
He observed that telling an unemployed teacher or a struggling student that the cedi has strengthened does not address their immediate challenges.
On the issue of tertiary education, he maintained that no level 100 student benefited from stress free fees in 2025, despite the policy being announced.
He added that in 2026, students have already reported to school without receiving the promised support.
He insisted that asking students to pay fees first and seek reimbursement later amounts to support after hardship, not stress free education.
According to him, this approach goes against what was promised during the policy announcement.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye questioned why a government that presents the economy as strong is unable to fulfil what he described as simple and clear promises.
He added that there is a fundamental problem with the way the economy is being managed and indicated that he is prepared to explain his position further.
By: Jacob Aggrey
