Oswestry college gets generous award
A memorial trust has presented a college with a cheque worth £50,000.
The Basil Houghton Memorial Trust, which is a grant-giving charity, handed over the cash to Derwen College in Oswestry, a residential and day placement college for people with learning difficulties and disabilities, aged 16 to 25 years.
The Shropshire-based trust provides funds to assist people with learning disabilities and their family carers, either directly or through organisations that support them.
It was established with the estate of Mrs Doris Houghton, named after her son who had a learning disability. Mrs Houghton wanted her money to be used to enable people with a learning disability to fulfil their dreams or aspirations and improve the quality of their lives. The funds will be used to help refurbish one of the 24 bungalows, called the Agnes Hunt Village, situated within the complex and used by senior students in their last year at the college.
College fundraiser, Anna Evans, said: “We are extremely grateful to the trust for making this amazing donation to help refurbish the bungalow, which give students a chance to gain valuable life and work skills by boosting their independence. The staff are on hand if needed, but take a step back to encourage the students to gain skills such as cooking and cleaning, as well as timekeeping, living in pairs or threes together and basically organising their own lives.”
Aaliyah James, 21, is in her last year a the college and shares a bungalow with Vavara Barieri.
Aaliyah said: “We’ve had the bungalow for a year now and we just love it.It’s a joint effort on everything and Vavara is very tidy, while I like to cook and make a mess, and we both enjoy going out shopping for items to make our favourite meal of Spaghetti Bolognese.
“We love to have other student friends round just to chill and chat and meet up in our home, so we really do feel independent and when I leave here I would certainly like to share a place with somebody again.”
Chair of Basil Houghton trustees, Julia Baron, added: “The independence afforded to these students by living in these bungalows within the college grounds fits in perfectly with the origins of the trust’s wishes, providing a much better quality of life.
"We have had a long association with Derwen College and this is a perfect use of funds which will help provide long term benefits for people with learning difficulties, so we were delighted to see the gratitude, pride in their home and happiness of students here today.”
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