By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
Think of all the daily activities you accomplish using your hands, from the most simple like holding a glass of water, to the most complex like texting on your cellphone. Now imagine not being able to use your hands and having to rely on someone else for all your daily needs like feeding, washing or dressing yourself. For burn survivors, early and adequate hand rehabilitation interventions can make the difference between losing hand functions due to contracture and deformity or preserving and restoring full hand functions, between being dependent on others for daily living needs or being able to pursue independently life goals at any age, from playing, to going to school, to working.
Small children have a tendency to explore their environment, touching or grabbing things with their hands. For this reason, they are subject to sustaining hand burns. Hand burns are a leading cause of injury in children in Latin America. Whether it is a scald or a contact burn, the injury requires special attention in order to preserve and restore full hand function.
In a survey and discussion carried out with Central America therapists back in October 2014, the majority felt that due to the long term functional implications of hand burn and the complexity of dealing with this type of injury, management of the burned hand was a crucial aspect of rehabilitation for which they needed further capacity building. That is why Sunshine Foundation has partnered with Asociación Pro-Niños Quemados De Nicaragua (APROQUEN) to implement a capacity building project to strengthen knowledge and skills of therapists in the management of the burned hand.
The first part of this training was held in Managua from Sept. 26 to Sept. 30, 2016 and brought together 11 therapists from Latin American countries. Apart from Central America representatives from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama, we were very happy to welcome for the first time representatives from Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
At Sunshine Foundation, rehabilitation of the hand is a central part of our services, and with this training, we were happy to share our experience in a comprehensive and systematic way, starting from the anatomy of the hand to the examination and evaluation of the hand, to the development interventions to prevent or correct deformities, such as exercises, pressure therapy and splinting.
This training is part of the ongoing cooperation between Sunshine and APROQUEN. Indeed, five years ago in 2011, Sunshine and APROQUEN launched their first capacity building program to impart advanced pressure garment production techniques to burn rehabilitation professionals from five Central America countries. Today, thanks to your support, we continue to share our experience with our partners by expanding the thematic and geographical focus of our training.
We invite you to continue supporting our work, especially by donating during #GivingTuesday on November 29th when the impact of your donation will be maximized thanks to GlobalGiving matching Funds.
When does #GivingTuesday take place?:
The 2016 #GivingTuesday campaign will begin November 29th, 2016, at 00:00:01 EST and end at 23:59:59 EST on November 29th, 2016. (November 29th, 2016, 12:00:01 Taiwan time until November 30th, 2016 11:59:59 Taiwan time).
How will GlobalGiving be matching funds?:
There will be $500,000 USD in matching funds on #GivingTuesday, applied at 50% to all donations to eligible projects while funds last.
New recurring donations up to $100 USD per month per unique donor per organization will have their initial donation matched at 200% on #GivingTuesday.
What is the maximum amount for a single donation that is eligible to be matched?:
Online donations of up to $1,000 per individual donor per organization are eligible to be matched.
How can I donate?:
Just go to our project page https://goto.gg/12976 and make a donation online. Only online donations made by credit card, PayPal, or a GlobalGiving official gift card are eligible for matching. Donations made by check or text-to-give are not eligible.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
