Support rural Tanzanians living with Disability

Hi everyone, my name is Shannen, and I have been working as a volunteer occupational therapist in Kamanga, Tanzania with the Cedar Foundation for the last 6 weeks. Kamanga is located within the Nyamatongo ward surrounding the beautiful Lake Victoria.

I am part of the community based rehabilitation team. Every day we travel by motorbike to reach people in need of medical care as well as rehabilitation due to a wide range of disabilities and illnesses. This month (October) the service will be expanding in to Ngoma ward, bringing more patients with more needs.

I have met incredible people and heard incredible stories during my time here. It is inspiring to see the smiling faces everyday despite the hardships these people endure. I would like to introduce you to a few faces.

Nyassa is a cheeky, fun loving, 14 year old boy with cerebral palsy. He lives with his family in a remote village. Nyassa does not go to school and spends most of his day lying on his side in the dirt outside his family home. I have been working with Nyassa to improve his overall strength, and standing tolerance. Nyassa has shown great potential for supported walking and I would like to raise funds to allow for a local fundi (technician) to craft a gait walker (perhaps the first of its kind in Tanzania) to enable Nyassa to gain more independence, improve his walking ability and improve his daily life and wellbeing. The only other option is to purchase from overseas, costing thousands plus import taxes. Nyassa would also benefit from special orthotics to allow him to walk with an improved gait and improve his ankle positioning. The orthotics cost around $100AUD and the gait trainer estimated at about $750AUD.

If we can raise the funds for a local fundi to engineer a gait trainer, this will also open the door for 1000’s of other children across the region to have access to locally made equipment via donations, as well as increasing opportunities for these children to attend school and become more independent.

Another gentleman I have been working with is Seif. Seif suffered a stroke about 8 years ago, resulting in a paralysed upper limb. He has extremely high tone, and is at risk of developing painful contractures throughout his elbow, wrist and fingers. We crafted a splint with cardboard and bandages to keep his wrist in a neutral position, and he holds a plastic bottle to stop his fingers from curling up. This is not a long term solution and requires visits multiple times a week to reapply. Seif requires a pre-made resting hand splint, to provide continuous stretch and maintain a neutral position of his hand and wrist to prevent formation of contractures. He will also be able to take it off and reapply independently. The splint will cost around $60AUD

To find out more regarding the Cedar Foundation Tanzania and Australia for Cedar Tanzania follow the link https://www.australiaforcedartanzania.org

If you can spare some change, I encourage you to donate, and I can assure you that any donation big or small will make an incredible impact.

Thank you