Dina Khory

Child Development Facilitator

Dina Khory had heard many positive comments about Renfrew from her time working as a special needs coordinator in a daycare, and she talked to a number of Renfrew staff to find out about their experiences. Then she volunteered for several months to see first-hand what the organization was about. That was ten years ago and she says it is the children who still hold her.  “Where else can you come in to work, even if you are feeling tired or out-of-sorts, and a child with so many challenges greets you with a huge smile and shyly admires your awful singing or your hair or your earrings?  It just makes your day!”

 

“The job never feels stale; no two days are the same,” she explains.  “You never know what tools you’ll need on a given day and it keeps you adapting and on your toes as you work to find a win/win solution to each challenge that is presented.” She finds the sense of achievement is huge with even the smallest gains when you see how determined the children are and what problems they are fighting to overcome.

 

Dina, who works as a child development facilitator in the Intensive Services for Children with Motor Disabilities (ISMD) program, finds that her work keeps her feeling young and fit.  She started attending after-work fitness classes a few years ago so she could continue to be down on the floor with the kids, lifting them and playing with them. “Although it’s not just playing that you are really doing”, she explains, “you know that you are giving the kids exponentially more than just play, and there is a lot of self-validation in that.”