We are very happy to announce that our long-term partner Beach Energy has recently renewed their generous sponsorship supporting CAPDA’s projects in Kilimanjaro Region over the course of the next year. This is very exciting news for CAPDA and the children we support!
Working with Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation Tanzania (CCBRT), the latest sponsorship has four major activities.
- It will train traditional birth attendants from remote regions with poor hospital access in safer birthing practices. The aim here is to reduce the rate of birth-related disabilities in children, and reduce maternal deaths and the incidence of fistula complications.
- The sponsorship will also fund surgery for 20 children with clubfoot and non-surgical treatment for clubfoot for a further 60. These treatments are relatively simple, but can mean the difference between being able to walk or not!
- Maintaining a wheelchair in the tough terrain of Tanzania is essential. Remote and urban trainees will learn to repair and maintain wheelchairs as part of this sponsorship too.
- Approximately 200 children (with 200 carers) will travel to CCBRT to attend week-long therapy and training sessions. These weeks focus on the child’s needs, and are often the carer’s first opportunity to learn about how to best support their child’s development. These ‘Weeks of Intensive Therapy’ include food, access to doctors, intensive occupational and physical therapy, equipment review, support for carers, and tests for anaemia and malaria, with intervention in emergency cases.
These will complement previous activities already sponsored by Beach Energy which have improved services and opportunities to those born with a disability. These include:
- providing material aid (wheelchairs, special seats etc)
- training for surgeons, nurses and health workers in Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus management in two regional areas
- training for community rehabilitation workers to detect and initiate treatment for malaria and anaemia, reducing the likelihood of factors which compound disability through malnutrition, stunting, and secondary brain damage.
Children, families, the community-based organisation providing services to the children, and CAPDA are hugely thankful for the on-going support of Beach Energy! These sponsorships create an energy and excitement as workers learn new skills, and make a tangible difference in the lives of children with a disability and their families, as they build the capacity and skills of the workforce to further prevent and treat disability.
Click here to view CCBRT’s comprehensive report on this project.
