It is common that disabled children in traditional low income communities are not sent to school. Even where primary education is free, it is not deemed worth the costs of uniforms, lunches or transport to send them to school. In many cases, schools are not appropriate place for them anyway, as special education training provision is extremely limited, and classrooms are often under staffed and overpopulated. Children with developmental delays are often quickly disregarded and excluded from education from the start.
Our project teams are on a mission to change this! In The Gambia, we have recently partnered with Gambian School Support to sponsors the transition of pre-school aged children who have shown capacity to learn at playscheme, into a high quality preschool, giving them the best start in their education. Our play teams visit frequently to monitor their progress and demonstrate to classroom staff how best to support them. The children are thriving, with one keen student learning all his letter sounds in 2 weeks!
"𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗺𝗮, 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡".
Last year, Campo Commodities, who provide custom food ingredients across African markets, raised a staggering 37,000 euros for our Gunjur Inclusion Project in The Gambia. Their support has helped to fund an In-House Physio Unit, and a minibus to transport even more isolated disabled children to play.
Representatives from the amazing Campo Team recently visited the Gunjur Inclusion Centre to get a glimpse of daily life, and find out from our team why the support of partners like Campo is so vital to the development of community services for Disabled Children across Africa .
𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀!
One of the key benefits we see from our play-schemes is that physically impaired children improve their mobility, sometimes even learning to walk. Before accessing our projects, parents often assume that physically impaired children will never learn to walk, so they are not encouraged to practise, or provided with the necessary aids to help them learn. When a child joins a Disability Africa play-scheme, our play teams will consistently encourage them to practise maximising their mobility during play. Each project also provides access to weekly physiotherapy sessions to help build their strength and mobility. Through partnerships with the amazing Caring For Mobility (The Gambia) and local health services (Kenya, Zambia), we help children to access life changing mobility aids to facilitate their movement. Here Manu, Amie and Ousman are taking their first steps asthey learn to walk at playschemes over the last 6 months.
Explore our Videos on Instagram
You can explore our recent activities at @disabilityafrica on Instagram , where we post regular video and photo content of our projects.
What we have learnt...
Florence and Nyevu, carers for disabled children and volunteers at the Malanga Inclusion Project, tell us what they have learnt in the short time they have been volunteering.
The Power Of Play: Kenya
Mwalimu Kombe and Katana Emmanuel, Playworkers at Bahati Primary School, talk about the power of play.
Play changes attitudes...
Jefwa and Baraka, Playworkers at Malanga Primary School, talking about how play changes negative attitudes:
Simple Stuff Working Wonders
The power of play summed up in less than two minutes