We brought together six Master
Trainers from Pakistan who were trained in Nepal, alongside their Nepalese
counterparts, which enabled both sets of trainers to see how things were done
in neighbouring countries and enabled them to interact with other therapists
who worked in a different context to them.
The Master Trainers came from Aga Khan University Hospital, Ziauddin
University Hospital and the two local NGOs ACELP and MEANS Institute. A local
coordinator in Pakistan has been recruited to arrange the logistics and
organise the first eight-day training of the Lady Health Workers. The six Master Trainers that were trained in
Karachi planned the initial roll-out in Karachi to organisations running
community programmes. Currently, 15 community health workers are receiving training
and have identified families with special needs children who can benefit from
the newly acquired skills.
Bakhtawar, one of the
Occupational Therapists from Pakistan that undertook the training in Nepal
said: “I learnt a lot more about the relevant standards and simpler ways of
management techniques for cerebral palsy and developmental disorders. I feel
pretty well-equipped with knowledge of how to manage these cases at home and I
am confident enough that I can deliver the gained knowledge to our community
health workers and implement the disability management rules in our
underprivileged areas. The MAITS’
trainer got the learning message across by breaking everything down into simplified
sections. She gave a complete manual of managing criteria and had a very good
knowledge of the standards. I must say, a very good mixture of theoretical and
practical training.”
Translations of resources for
parents, which teach families more about their child’s disability and
techniques they can use to support their children ranging from exercises to
feeding techniques will be made available in the local language, Urdu.
This resource will also be available on the MAITS’ website in our resources
section in Urdu where we have a library of resources in different languages to
share.
MAITS funded a five-day Forum Theatre event facilitated via a
collaboration between Sharing Stories (www.sharingstoriesventure.com) and Odd
Arts (www.oddarts.co.uk). The project took place in Kampala, Uganda, in July
2018. The trainers were joined by the individuals with experience of mental
health difficulties, including users of mental health services, mental health
professionals and carers. The project included the development and performance
of a Forum Theatre production to a public audience, and a training workshop
around Forum Theatre and Creative Leadership techniques.
The workshops in the first three days introduced Forum
Theatre to the participants. Using a range of group exercises, the trainers
began the process of developing a drama about stigma and mental health, using
many of the participants’ personal experiences of mental health as inspiration
for the characters and story. On the
third evening, the workshop participants performed their Forum Theatre piece to
an audience at the National Theatre, as part of an event which included showing
films about previous Sharing Stories events, a recent Forum Theatre project in
the UK, and interviews with mental health professionals and service users about
their experiences of stigma. The final
two days were devoted to training a group of the participants in the use of
Forum Theatre techniques to use and disseminate within their local communities
and networks, to support sustainable and ongoing change beyond the end of the
project.
Feedback from participants and audience members indicates
that this project achieved and indeed went beyond the initial objectives
identified. People were engaged and trained in use of Forum Theatre techniques,
contributing to change at social and community levels. Drawing on the lived
experience of people with mental health problems, a powerful performance was
written and delivered to an audience at the National Theatre. The audience
members left with an improved awareness of mental health and stigma, and were
empowered by thinking about things they could do to contribute in an active way
to challenging negative perceptions and stereotypes. The training provided
focused on generalizable and transferable learning outcomes, enabling
participants to utilise and adapt the techniques for use within their own
communities and organisations. The shared learning between group members from
UK and Uganda promoted powerful cross-cultural reflection, development and
understanding, leading to wide ranging and sustainable change across both
countries.
Kashmira Medhekar along with her colleague Shirley Warren conducted a
workshop based on Appropriate Paper Technology for over 4 days at the National
Association for the Blind, India. The basics of APT to make positioning
equipment were taught to a group of 14 teachers from NAB from different cities
across India. Community workers from Orissa, Varnasi, and Lukhnow have 8 children
each on their caseload. Community Worker Poonam Singh from Uttar Pradesh has 20
children on her caseload. NAB Mumbai has 110 children on their caseload which
makes a total of 174 children who will potentially benefit from the training that
was delivered by MAITS trainers. We aim that a further 30 to 40 children shall
be able to receive positioning equipment if the trainees from out skirts of
Mumbai are successful in passing on their new skills and knowledge in APT to
their colleagues.
In May 2017, the APT training
conducted by our trainers at NAB demonstrated taking measurements of a chair
and standing frame and trained community workers in transferring measurements
onto the cardboard and making a chair, standing frame, corner seat and a few
toys. MAITS trainers aim to continue their support to NAB by organisation a
further workshop next year where community workers and families will be invited
to help make own equipment.
So far, we have received excellent
response and feedback. Our trainers left
India with a feeling of a job well done. Trainees are now expected to continue
to practice new skills learnt and liaise with Kashmira and Shirley for any
support required.
MAITS’ CEO went to visit one of our long-term partners, the National
Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy and other Developmental Disorders
(NCCCPDD), who we have been working with for a number of years, providing
different types of training when requested. The NCCCPDD provides training to
others and calls upon MAITS to provide training in the areas of greatest need
and they are typical of the kind of organisation that we are proud to partner with.
Here, Esther explains a bit more…
National Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy and other Developmental
Disorders (NCCCPDD)
On arriving at the NCCCPDD and meeting the director Gopi Kitnasamy and
his wife…. It is hard not to be completely blown away by their story and what
they have achieved.
Gopi explained:
“I am a Physiotherapist by profession and at the beginning of my career
had been considering whether to do a degree in Dental Sciences or
Physiotherapy. I chose Physiotherapy and only later on did I come to understand
why this was such a significant choice. Our son, Danush, is now 19 years
old and has cerebral palsy. Due to my profession, I was able to work to support
him, but when it came to time to send him to school, I was told that there were
many options. My wife and I went along to school after school only to find that
the reality was somewhat different. Each school we visited, either did
not want to know, because he is in a wheelchair, or they were not accessible,
with no ramps and just lots of stairs so he would not have been able to access
the buildings. After much pushing, my wife and I realised that the best thing
we could do would be to set up a school ourselves.
So that is what we did. We set up the Cerebral Palsy Lanka
Foundation and the Dream Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy and in the
beginning; it was just my son and two of his friends who also had cerebral
palsy. As time went on, the centrel grew and within time, we had the blessing
of partnering with the MJF Foundation which is the charitable foundation for
the Dilmah tea company.”He chuckled, “if you came to Sri Lanka via Sri Lankan
airlines and had the tea, you would have had Dilmah tea!”
And so now here we are… We now have five MJF centres across Sri Lanka
and the dream (vision) is to have a centre in all the districts in Sri Lanka.”
Gopi is extremely modest about all his centres have achieved, but when
you visit, the facts speak for themselves. Between them, MAITS trainers and our
CEO visited the centre everyday for 6 days to carry out the training. In
this time, we were able to meet the dedicated staff team, many of whom have
family members who have cerebral palsy and who have been able to take back home
what they have learnt and put it into practice there, as well as at work. We
met about 15 parents, one grandparent and their children and saw the children
in school, undertaking a range of activities, including hydrotherapy,
physiotherapy and sessions with the parents and teachers. We also saw
them at play in the wonderful playground that was developed for the centre,
where the equipment is designed for children to use in their wheelchairs. This
included a swing, merry-go-round and a see-saw that children could get into in
their wheelchairs and strapped in to enjoy the fun. What I really loved was
that they had made sure that another swing suitable for children in wheelchairs
has also been built for Viharamahadevi park, a public park near the town hall
in Colombo, so that families can take their children on a day out and they will
not be left out.
So many parents came up to speak to me whilst I visited to tell me just
how much difference the school had made to their children’s lives and how it
had been life-changing.
One mother came up to me and told me how much she had liked the sessions
she got to participate in with our training team and how she was grateful
everyday that her son attended the National Centre for Cerebral Palsy.
She said “before my son started there, I cried everyday, not knowing how to support
him. His condition was relatively mild and therefore, he had not been diagnosed
straight away. When he started the school, I received so much support and
advice and he really started to do well.” The tears welled up in her eyes as
she spoke and she told me “I was blessed to have a son with this condition,
because he opened my eyes to how to be a better person, to learn to be grateful
for what we do have. I have met other parents and made friends who understand
our family. I believe God gives these special children to parents and gives
them the strength to help them. I am happy to have found this place where my
son can get help and I am so grateful to have such a special child, for he is
special, they all are.”
She was just one of many parents who spoke to me about how life-changing
the National Centre for Cerebral Palsy has been for her family. MAITS is
proud to work with Gopi and his team and it reinforces our belief in our
approach which is to be there to serve and support fantastic, local
organisations. We could not do the work that they do better than they do,
we could not know what their community needs better than they do. But we
are there, to support with training needs, in areas that they and all our other
local partners have identified. We bring volunteer trainers who give freely of
their time, support their costs and contribute modest amounts to enable
trainees from out of area to get transport and accommodation where needed so
that they can attend training.
We are proud to maintain an ongoing relationship with so many wonderful
local organisations, who can benefit free of charge from our training and who,
most importantly, we maintain an ongoing partnership with.
As I walked around the centre, day after day, between the training
sessions that I was observing, whilst meeting parents and staff, I kept looking
around and thinking “this place is amazing, all this is because of two people,
two parents, who knew that not just their child, but so many more, deserved so
much better. And then they made it happen.” And we are very proud to walk
alongside them on their journey.
The National Centre for Cerebral Palsy is just one of our wonderful local partners. We work with many amazing organisations and have worked in 20 countries around the world through our team of qualified volunteers.
In developing countries, 50% of babies born at 32 weeks die due to a lack of support, including support to breastfeed. In developed countries, almost all survive. There is little understanding of the needs of infants and children with feeding difficulties in low-income settings and an absence of expertise to support them. The WHO recognises the need for improving capacity of healthcare workers to improve quality of care for these children. MAITS has a life-saving Infant Feeding programme which teaches simple techniques to help babies with feeding difficulties linked to premature birth or an underlying disability. Our latest project took place in Rwanda in February 2018 where MAITS Infant Feeding trainers supported local Master Trainers in rolling out the initiative.
The Programme
This is the first time we conducted our life-saving infant-feeding programme as a master training programme in Rwanda. We taught local staff the skills needed to support high-risk infants including those with underlying disabilities and those born prematurely. MAITS trainers provided ongoing clinical supervision for the Master Trainers. We have reached 81 healthcare providers (including 3 local Master Trainers) in 7 hospitals, we have reached over 1400 mothers and babies on neonatal units just between the months of February-September 2018. An average of 50 babies per month in each hospital has been supported by those we trained. Our trainers worked directly with the hospital staff, mothers and babies to provide direct on-the-job training. Additionally, 4 “Expert Mothers” have been trained to provide regular peer support in 2 hospitals. An abstract of the project has been accepted by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) academic journal.
We are delighted that three MAITS volunteers have been awarded the Prime Minister’s Point of Light Award for their work with us! Janet Ivin, John Carter and Geraldine O’Grady were three of only six people who received this award for their outstanding volunteer work for those with special educational needs and disabilities.
The Prime Minister’s daily Points of Light award recognises outstanding individual volunteers – people who are making positive changes in their communities and around the world, with recognition of these individuals being based on how their “actions have changed lives and how their stories can inspire thousands more to get involved or start their own initiatives”. These volunteers have been specially recognised to coincide with the first ever Global Disability Summit, co-hosted by the UK’s Department for International Development with the International Disability Alliance and the Government of Kenya which took place on the 24th July at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. The summit brought together leaders from the private sector, governments, donor agencies and charities to raise awareness and show a commitment to transform the lives of people with disabilities.
Geraldine, John and Janet were invited to Whitehall for a round table meeting with Lord Michael Bates, the Minister of State, along with the three other winners, where they were presented with a certificate and a signed letter from the Prime Minister. During this meeting they were invited to speak about their voluntary work and had the chance to discuss why they view volunteering as important and how it can be expanded to have a further lasting impact.
Geraldine, who is an educator for children with special needs at Whitefield Schools in London, won the award for her inspirational training in a college and special schools in India, and her role in setting up MAITS. Since then, MAITS has worked in 21 countries and has trained over 4700 staff who have ultimately reached over 600,000 people living with disabilities such as autism and cerebral palsy in developing countries. Along with Meheen and Asif Rangoonwala from the ZVM Rangoonwala Foundation, Geraldine went on to become one of the co-founders of MAITS in 2008. On winning the award Geraldine said:
“I am so thrilled to have been given this award and am pleased, humbled and incredibly grateful that my work is being recognised in this way. Thank you to MAITS and Asif and Meheen who saw the positive changes that training on special needs could bring about and enabled this to happen, as co-founding trustees and funders of MAITS. Thanks too to my colleagues at Whitefield Schools in Waltham Forest and Niels Chapman, a former head teacher, who along with me, volunteered in India. I would also like to thank DFID and Number 10 for giving me this award. It’s a real honour! Volunteering is something that I would highly recommend, and I never dreamed about the path it would take me on.”
In a personal letter of thanks to Geraldine, Prime Minister Theresa May said:
“Your decision to volunteer your skills in Indian special schools has done so much to support children with developmental disabilities to be able to access education. Your work inspired an entire charity and now, as a result of your ideas and energy, hundreds of thousands of people have benefited across the world.”
Janet and John received the award for their dedication and voluntary work training occupational therapists, physiotherapists and special needs teachers to make low-cost, therapy and rehabilitation equipment for children with disabilities out of paper and cardboard. This pioneering ‘Appropriate Paper-Based Technology’ (APT) is environmentally friendly and allows equipment such as specialised supportive chairs for children with cerebral palsy to be made to individual specifications from everyday items such as cardboard, newspaper and plastic bottles.
Commenting on receiving the award, Janet said:
“When I received the telephone call informing me that I had been chosen to receive the Points of Light award, I could not comprehend what I had just been told. I feel very humbled and honoured that my passion for volunteering my skills in APT and occupational therapy has led to this award. It has also been very affirming for me.”
John echoed this sense of surprise and said he was “shocked – flabbergasted – to be honoured with the Point of Light award. Volunteering is my passion. I love teaching APT to benefit disadvantaged people in developing countries, sharing my knowledge with others knowing that when I return home our students are enthused to share their new skills. I feel very humbled to be receiving this award. Thank you.”
Whilst the Prime minister thanked the pair with individual letters of thanks in which she heralded their training as “ground-breaking” and “revolutionising the care therapists in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can offer patients. With the ability to produce equipment quickly and inexpensively, local therapists are able to provide aides made to people’s individual specifications and transform lives.”
MAITS would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners of this prestigious award and also to acknowledge all the MAITS volunteers, without whom MAITS would not have been able to reach all the people we have. We are inspired by and grateful to every single person who has volunteered their time with MAITS to help and support people with disabilities in developing countries. MAITS CEO Esther Hamilton says “It is an inspiration to work for a charity, in which people come together and volunteer their time to improve the lives of those with disabilities and we thank you all.
Feel like you would like to get involved and make a difference? MAITS is currently accepting applications for small grants to enable experienced disability professionals from all over the world to share their skills with those working with and caring for those with disabilities in low and middle-income countries. If you are an organisation in a developing country looking for training, we are always keen to hear from you. Both trainers and organisations receiving training can register with us and apply for small grants to cover costs that make the training possible.
Do you want to use your skills to make a difference to some of the most vulnerable communities in the Middle East? Do you want to ensure children with disabilities and their families have access to the help and support they need? If so, find out more by clicking here…
MAITS has some new training packages to share with you. We have a new edition of the Guide for Community Health Workers, renamed Caring for Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Guide for Parents, which has more pictures in it and has been reformatted to make it easier to use. We have piloted and finalised and our training programme for community workers and non-specialists which is a complement to the Parent Guide, and have also produced the final version of our Infant Feeding package. For details click here
MAITS has been selected for the GlobalGiving Programme! This is our first ever crowd-funding campaign. Support our programme to ensure that children with disabilities and their families receive support from trained Community Workers in their own homes in Sindh District in Pakistan.
Many children with disabilities are not able to go to school or receive basic health services and due to the stigma surrounding disability in many countries, many families feel a sense of loneliness as they face these difficulties alone. Lady Health Workers operate all over Pakistan, visiting and supporting families, but they do not have disability training. Our programme trains Lady Health Workers and provides guides and support that can be shared with parents of children with disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy and Autism, reaching some of the most vulnerable and excluded children in the world. The project is sustainable as we equip local Lady Health Workers who work through local government and charities with the skills to support children with disabilities and their families. They will also be taught how and when to signpost to specialist services when children have more complex needs. Qualified therapists at local charities and university hospitals are providing supervision to the Lady Health Workers, as part of their normal jobs.
This project will be reaching some of the most marginalised children in the world and will help them to receive support within their own homes. The target is to raise £9,983 and we have currently raised £5,472 thanks to 48 donors.
Any donations made through direct debit will count as two donors, and your first donation will be matched by GlobalGiving!