Give burn survivors access to rehabilitation

Through in-depth trainings and capacity building projects, Sunshine hopes to help burn professionals build the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to address the global problem of burns and ensure that burn survivors around the world have access to quality rehabilitation, so that they can regain their functions to return to an active life in society. Your support can make these project happens and change the lives not just of burn professionals, but also of the burn survivors they serve.

“I was overwhelmed by the knowledge of the clinical staff. Their mentoring helped me to learn more and improve on my technical skills. I feel very confident now that I understand burns at its various stages. I will be able to manage burn scars with a good approach." – Prathiba, India

“Before this training, we weren’t used to analyzing hand problems so specifically, so we weren’t able to set a clear rehabilitation goal and in the end, the interventions that we planned probably were not the most efficient ones. Now I know where my strengths and weaknesses are! A training program can change someone. When we see patients recover after rehabilitation, it feels really good” – Amparo, Guatemala

“We were very happy when Sunshine came to carry out a four-year training project because our patients finally had comfortable pressure garments and they were able to tolerate wearing them. We realized that children would no longer remove their garments because they no longer felt uncomfortable. The pressure garments we used to make would sometimes cause wounds but that’s no longer the case with the new garments.” – Socorro, Nicaragua

As the end of 2019 is near, we encourage you to support us during GlobalGiving’s Year-End Campaign to help train a burn professional and change the life of a burn survivor.

Since 2013, Sunshine Foundation has been working closely with a local organization in Chennai, India to help set up a Recovery and Care Center for women burn survivors. By training their staff in Chennai and holding internships for them in Taiwan, we are helping this local organization address an unmet need: provide comprehensive physical and psychosocial rehabilitation services for women burn survivors after hospital discharge.

In September, Sunshine Foundation had the immense pleasure of welcoming Prathiba, Physiotherapist of the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC), for a one-month burn rehabilitation training in Taiwan.

Prathiba is PCVC’s only therapist and she is in charge of evaluating clients that come to the Recovery and Care Center, as well as developing individualized physical rehabilitation plans for them. Unfortunately, ongoing training in burn rehabilitation is practically inexistent in her area. In order to address her need for strengthening knowledge and skills, the therapists at Sunshine devised a one-month training plan focusing on enhancing clinical competencies, including carrying out a thorough evaluation to identify problems and their cause, as well as setting measurable treatment goals and developing a targeted treatment plan. About what she learned so far, Prathiba says: “This learning is very useful, I learnt how to break down each goal into short and long term, which will bring better results and will give clients a sense of achievement.” Prior to coming to Taiwan, Prathiba also used online courses developed by Sunshine to build a good knowledge base about burn scars and burn rehabilitation.

Your support of our trainings and capacity building projects allows Sunshine to contribute to addressing the global problem of burns. By supporting the training of therapists like Prathiba, you help ensure that burn survivors around the world have access to quality rehabilitation and can thus regain their functions to return to an active life in society.