Disability Rights Malawi Project #19112

Protect and Support 500 Kids with Disabilities

by ALEIMAR - Voluntary Organization

Protect and Support 500 Kids with Disabilities

Summary

The project aims to provide care and support to 500 children with physical or mental disabilities living in extreme poverty or neglect in the rural villages of Mangochi district, Malawi. Here, through free physiotherapy sessions, food support against malnutrition, medical support for therapies and surgeries, the volunteers of the Tiyende Pamodzi Group dedicate themselves to identifying, visiting and monitoring the children on a weekly basis as well as training for the families.

$10,000
total goal

$8,677
remaining

11
donors

1
monthly donor

9
years

Challenge

The project is implemented in the Mangochi District, Malawi, a rural area characterised by lack of clean water, a high rate of malnutrition and chronic diseases among adults and children (HIV above all). Here, precisely in Namwera and 12 other villages, thousands of families live in extreme poverty and social hardship, aggravated by the situation of hundreds of children with physical and cognitive disabilities who are often abandoned and left alone in huts while their mothers work in the fields.

Solution

Thanks to the presence of a physiotherapist and a network of volunteers, 500 children with disabilities are signalled and included in the rehabilitation programme, which includes monthly meetings with the physiotherapist and specific training for the children's guardians to learn movement techniques to be carried out independently. In this way, the children are also constantly monitored and assisted through the distribution of food packages and paediatric visits scheduled at the hospital.

Long-Term Impact

The rehabilitation programme makes it possible to assist and support 500 children with disabilities who would otherwise be abandoned in their huts, with no one to follow their development. Thanks to the project, however, we can bring physiotherapy care to the children, but also training and awareness-raising on the subject of disability in the villages, together with nutritional and medical screening activities to ensure that the children's needs are taken care of comprehensively.