By Fiona Beckerlegge | Clinical Director
Kyaninga Child Development Centre strongly believes in the importance of community support in caring for children with disabilities and their families and works closely with the Village Health Team members in the community. These unsung heroes are volunteers without formal health qualifications who provide basic health care and education at the household level.
Through our partnership with the MAITS organisation, we have empowered these community health workers to monitor and directly assist children with disabilities and their families through their day-to-day life in the rehabilitative process. In Bughoye sub-county, Kasese District, six-year-old Mark is one of many children supported by the VHT. On the initial assessment in 2021, Mark presented with difficulties standing in an upright posture, even with support and limited right-hand use in bilateral activities. He was enrolled on KCDCs community physiotherapy and occupational therapy programmes to work on his strength and stability and improve his right hand's use.
A joint home visit by KCDC staff and the VHT was recently conducted, and the following information was gathered.
Mark's mother reported that following the support and supervision from the VHT and KCDC therapists, he is happier as he smiles more often and prefers to engage more with people in the village. There have been no changes in the frequency of catching illnesses, and he has been generally healthy. She also happily shared that the child has more contact with people. He crawls out of the house into the compound and sometimes into the neighbourhood to play with other children. With the support of the VHT (Village Health Team), she has been able to go out more to visit family members with the child. Mark is currently trying to stand upright with support.
She further reported that caring for Mark is a little easier now as he expresses his needs by humming, making facial expressions and attempting to say a few words and can respond to instructions appropriately. He can now feed himself without support, so she uses the time saved to do household chores and dig the garden.
Mark is happy to have a new friend who visits often and is a community health worker/VHT. The mother of the child acknowledges that she is now stronger while taking care of her child since she has close support through the VHT alongside the KCDC team. The family members are generally happy that they no longer rely on mythical information as they did before joining KCDC. Now that a VHT always visits, they keep learning facts about disability and rehabilitation.
The VHT appreciates having a MAITS training guide that helps him recall information from the MAITS training. It also allows him to elaborate more clearly to all caretakers on ways to care for the children. Specifically, with Mark, the VHT is working with the parents to help him gain undressing skills, which was not the case before. He currently uses the parents' guide to demonstrate how to help. The VHT is more confident while interacting with the parents about ways to handle the children.
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