Since September 2023, Baba, Turkian, Valerica and Adriana have gone back to school. A lady in the town, Otilia, who is now mentioned in most sentences by the gang, started a class for adults who are differently abled. Her own son is 19 and is on the autistic spectrum.

The group are the life and the soul of the class of 8 young people, Otilia has said that without them the atmosphere is completely different, (we imagine that it is just a polite way of saying quieter!). Each day they do different activities, arts and crafts, spelling, simple cooking, exercise, music, dance and Turkian’s favourite, singing with Roxana, a local singing teacher.

Each morning the group are excited to get ready for the day, before their walk to school. When you ask them at the end of the morning, what they have done. There is never any mention of the activities that they have done, this we only find out afterwards or through conversations with Otilia. They only mention what they have eaten and what they have drunk. We get reports of hot chocolate on cold winter days, biscuits, homemade cakes etc. This really is the highlight for them.

For us the highlight so far has been the Christmas show. Seeing them all up on the stage at the High School, singing, dancing and Turkian working the crowd like a real diva was just the most amazing experience. They got as much enjoyment out of it as we did.

The project is funded through selling homemade items at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter, as well as some local people supporting them financially, especially for the biscuits and hot chocolate!! If you would like to support this project, you are able to through a donation to Nightingales, please mention in the donation that it is for the School for Differently Abled Adults.  Here is the link, a little bit can go a long way to helping our adults and others in the town increase their quality of life.

https://nightingaleschildrensproject.co.uk/donate/