Multi Agency International Training and Support

Our Mission:

MAITS exists to empower educational and health professionals to enhance and develop the services they provide to people with disabilities in resource-poor settings through sharing knowledge and practice.

How we do this:

Overseas organisations contact MAITS requesting input from UK-based professionals in specific areas of practice.  MAITS will only accept requests that are not able to be met locally with existing knowledge and expertise.  We then match one or more MAITS-registered professionals with the relevant training and experience to the request and send their CVs to the local organisation for a proposed short-term visit.  If a visit is agreed, specific objectives and the schedule for the visit are developed in partnership with the local organisation.  MAITS covers certain costs, including flights, visa and travel insurance.  MAITS requests that the local organisation assist with local accommodation and transport.  Many professionals volunteer during the school holidays or their annual leave.  Visits are usually between 3 and 8 weeks and outcomes are measured in partnership with the organisation against the original objectives at the completion of the visit and then at around 6 months after the visit.

We aim for all of our input to be led by the local organisations and we see the visits as an opportunity for all involved to expand and develop through sharing and partnership.  Input is focused on capacity-building and sustainability through the development of long-term relationships.

We mostly send UK-based professionals in multi-disciplinary teams to maximise the scope of the input for local organisations and to ensure support for the visiting professionals.  We also foster long-term relationships with our local organisations and provide repeated visits over a period time to ensure visits are targeted and tailored to the organisations’ needs and to promote sustainability.  At the same time, we aim to facilitate the development of ongoing relationships between local organisations and similar organisations in the UK to ensure the same.

In addition to visits set up around established MAITS partnerships, we also provide funding to UK-based professionals and organisations to conduct visits to overseas organisations they already have links with.  We call this a Grant Application (see link for further information).

For information on specific visits we have conducted, go to Recent Projects (link).

Who we send:

We currenly have volunteers from a range of professions with qualifications and experience in working in the disability sector.  These professions include:

Music, Art and Drama Therapy

Nursing

Occupational Therapy

Physiotherapy

Special Education Teachers

Speech and Language Therapy

However, we would be interested in hearing from any UK based professional working in the field of disability.

Where we send our volunteers:

We currently fund projects in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Uganda, South Africa and Pakistan.  There are plans to extend our training and support to organisations in other parts of the world.

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