HCU is staging a special needs intervention at Uganda's care center for youth with life-threatening degenerative neurological disease, Nodding Syndrome (NS). If funding requirements are not met, the center will be forced to turn away its 300+ beneficiaries: the last time the center closed for 6 months, 5 children died in this period. Donate to help affected children, staff, medical researchers, and the surrounding community in the struggle to understand, cope with, and treat Nodding Syndrome.
NS is a life-threatening degenerative neurological disorder which causes seizures, stunted growth, and brain dysfunction. The Odek Center is the only government-recognized Rehabilitation Center for an estimated 3,000 child-victims of Nodding Syndrome in the entire Northern Uganda, but discontinued funding is forcing the center to close. This would leave hundreds of children without care, forcing them to return home to their families where they face increased risk of injury and death.
1. Provide psychological and social support to restore for families of children affected by Nodding syndrome. 2. Provide rehabilitation services with occupational, physio, speech, language, and music therapy to improve and restore lost abilities and improve livelihoods. 3. Build the capacity of office duty bearers / leaders to advocate for better health services delivery for children affected by nodding syndrome.
The nature of the aforementioned objectives is to ensure long-term sustainability. We provide the community with the education to understand Nodding Syndrome and how to cope with it. We equip local leaders and center admins with the tools they need to better advocate for themselves for future funding, plus our Agro-business model for nutritious food and a source of revenue. We also provide the children with the rehabilitative care they need to recover and live as normal lives as possible.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
