Ugandan Society for Disabled Children

In 2015, Guernsey's Overseas Aid & Development Commission supported a project through a UK charity AbleChildAfrica (www.ablechildafrica.org) to purchase specialist equipment for use in three hospitals in Uganda to assist in the assessment and treatment of disabled children. 

Yesterday (5 October 2016), I spent the day with staff from the Ugandan Society for Disabled Children (USDC) (www.usdc.org.ug) (AbleChildAfrica's in-country partner) to learn more about how the equipment is being used to support the Society's work with disabled children in Nebbi and the surrounding area. 



Wycliff Odong (USDC Project Co-ordinator), Physiotherapist
(Nebbi Hospital),Paul (USDC Schools' Officer), Swaib (USDC Focal
Officer), and Michael (Chairman, Parent Support Groups)

The equipment is supporting a wider programme - Improving Health Services.  This project aims to improve health and increase participation in school and community life for disabled children in three districts in Northern Uganda; Lira, Adjumani and Nebbi. This project provides essential equipment and resources at hospitals to enable them to better meet the basic health and diagnostic needs of disabled children. AbleChildAfrica and USDC are also training parents and health workers in innovative and cost effective ways to produce equipment locally and in providing home/school based care.  This project is working concurrently in the same three districts as the Inclusive Education Project and both projects support and strengthen one another.  Below are pictures of some of the equipment purchased with the Overseas Aid & Development Commission's grant,

 

 

 

After lunch, I joined the USDC staff at a meeting with head teachers and key staff responsible for the deliver of a wider project AbleChildAfrica is supporting USDC called Inclusive Education Project.

This is a 3-year pilot programme, funded by the UK Department for International Development, works to address the environmental, institutional and attitudinal barriers to inclusion.  Using the child to child approach, children identify and engage out-of-school disabled children in their communities, identify barriers to their exclusion, and work with schools and communities to ensure they access and stay at school.  Since the beginning of the project in April 2013 there has been a 68% increase in enrolment of disabled children in the project schools (including 3 schools in the Nebbi area), 842 out of school disabled children now enrolled in school.  The pilot project has recently secured further funding for 5 years and during this time the programme will be rolled out to further schools, including 6 further schools in the Nebbi area.

Meeting with head teachers and project master trainers from
Agwok, Jukia and Koch Primary Schools

As part of the project, adaptions have been made to the primary schools including building an accessible latrine block at each school and ramps from the playground to the classroom.  However, these adaptions do not overcome the challenges for children with mobility problems from crossing the playground to get from their classroom to the latrine block.

Accessible latrine block

Jukia Primary School playground
(crisscrossed with mango tree routes)