By Emma Richards | Community Healthworker Programme Update
Dear Friends,
I want to begin by acknowledging the challenges we have faced as a global community over the last few months – it has been such a difficult year for all. Children with developmental disabilities and their families have been severely impacted. In some cases there has been limited access to medicines and therapeutic support.
Since the outbreak, and subsequent lockdowns of international borders in March 2020, MAITS has made the decision to temporarily postpone all face-to-face programmes, in order to protect the health and wellbeing of all those we work with. This is particularly important as we support people with disabilities, who are even more vulnerable to the virus.
We're delighted that in September 2020, our expert trainers delivered Phase One of our Community Heatlhworker Empowerement Programme to Cerebral Palsy, Lanka (CP Lanka) and Sayr Special School in India. This resulted in a fantastic 13-session online course delivered by MAITS's three International Master Trainers Dr. Shabanam Rangwala (Occupational Therapist) from India, Ms. Aasiya Faris Sachwani (Speech-Language Pathologist) from Canada and Mr.Ali Punjani (Speech Therapist) from Pakistan.
There were 30 members of staff who attended our training sessions, ranging from occupational therapists to special educational needs teachers. The training was a great success- both trainees and trainers were so pleased with the format that we are now coordinating an online version of the Community Healthworker Training programme, with the idea of rolling out to organisations all over the world.
At present, MAITS is working on delivering Phase 2 of its training with CP Lanka and Satya Special School . This will see our Master Trainers go into the communities and train 140- 150 community health workers in Sri Lanka - supporting 600-750 families of children with development disabilities by empowering them with the skills needed .
We are thrilled that we have begun an important step in supporting local communities in Sri Lanka and India in these very challenging times. Thank you for helping us achieve this milestone.
We look forward to sharing more with you in the New Year. Please do follow us @MAITS_int for more news.Welcome to the MAITS community!
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and New Year. Stay safe.
Warm wishes,
Emma, Sadia, Kamila and Edwina
The MAITS Team
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