Delivering healthcare to children and adults living with a disability.
Outreach healthcare services
Our amazing Outreach Team delivers healthcare to people with disabilities in their own homes.
People living in the Nyamatongo Ward are poor. When you add a disability to that life becomes even harder.
Most people with disabilities cannot afford healthcare, and getting to a doctor can be both a physical and financial challenge that is too big to overcome.
Our Outreach Team on home visits bringing care to people with disabilities
Providing support and healthcare at home allows us to minimise the risks of secondary diseases developing.
Across Tanzania, people with disabilities face severe discrimination leaving them vulnerable to neglect and abuse.
The Outreach Team raise awareness among families and the community on child health, nutrition and secondary diseases that may occur if a disability is not managed adequately.
They also discuss the rights and needs of people with disabilities and inform families on how to best care for their loved ones living with disabilities.
Young boy receives wheelchair with help from our Outreach Team
Occupational Therapy
With only 300 occupational therapists serving the entire Tanzanian population of more than 66 million people it is not a well known service, and the concept of rehabilitation is not widespread.
Since 2017 we have been introducing occupational therapy services to the residents of the Nyamatongo Ward through our Outreach Healthcare Services. We improve the wellbeing of people with disabilities and equip them to manage their disability more effectively at home and in the community.
More than 2.7 million children under the age of 5 experience stunted growth in Tanzania and more than 600,000 are suffering from acute malnutrition. This is even more prevalent among people with disabilities which is why it is important we help them and their families to know the significance good nutrition plays in managing disability.
Our Outreach Team consists of two medical officers, a physiological therapist and an occupational therapist who, on a daily basis, drives on motorcycles to visit people with disabilities.
In the beginning of 2021 we opened our dedicated occupational therapy building at Kamanga Health Centre to offer more extensive rehabilitations programmes and continuous occupational therapy sessions to those in need.
As part of our teams’ daily activities they identify and assess new patients as well as discuss the importance of quality medical care. Our team also provides locally manufactured assistive devices such as wheelchairs to improve participation in community life more actively and independently.
Inclusion and care
Our staff at Kamanga Health Centre have been trained in providing healthcare specifically for people with disabilities and our team also made sure the health centre is accessible for people with disabilities, ensuring that ramps were included in the building plans, that corridors were wide enough for wheelchairs, and that toilets has easy to access. Even the design of the signage took the needs of people with disabilities into consideration.
Cerebral Malaria can have severe consequences
All the building blocks for providing essential medical care to people with disabilities both onsite at Kamanga Health Centre and off site through our innovative Outreach Team were put in place in 2017, ready for the project to launch in early 2018 and we are pleased to see the project continuing and expanding every year.
Please get in contact for more information about our Outreach Team project: