By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
Since 2011, Sunshine has been organizing training programs for burn rehabilitation professionals in other countries. Trainings are not done for training’s sake. Each program is carefully tailored to address the specific needs of our partners and always starts out with a thorough needs assessment to identify problems or areas that need to be strengthened.
Since the end in 2014 of our first pressure garment production training program for Central America, our partners have applied the new techniques learned and have significantly improved their ability to provide burn survivors with efficient pressure garments to control hypertrophic scars. But as time went by, they began to feel that more advanced training is necessary, not only as a “refresher,” but also to improve the ability to deal with more complex, non-standard cases.
In order to have a clear picture of the current skills level of trainees and identify new training needs, Sunshine and its partners in Nicaragua and Honduras have begun an evaluation process that will cover all the pressure garment production steps: scar assessment, selection of garment, measurement, pattern-making and sewing. In May, two big boxes filled with pressure garments arrived at Sunshine Foundation. They were sent by our partner organizations in Central America who spent over two months preparing, and now Sunshine trainers have begun carefully reviewing each garment, noting down recommendations.
This kind of assessment requires a lot of efforts both on the part of trainees who must prepare complete material, and trainers who must review everything. But everyone agrees that this investment of time and effort is worth it to design a successful training, as it will ensure that limited training resources are used to achieve the maximum of impact.
Over the years, these training programs have been made possible thanks to the support of Globalgiving donors. On Thursday, July 18, starting at 9:00 a.m. ET (July 18, 21:00 Taiwan time), Globalgiving will be providing $130K in matching funds. Globalgiving will be matching donations of $100 and above while funds last on this day so we encourage you to use this special opportunity to maximize the impact of your support to Sunshine.
By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Manager
By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
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