Education Pakistan Project #31713

Supporting Children with Disabilities in Pakistan

by MAITS - Multi-Agency International Training and Support

Project Report | Apr 27, 2021
Important Project Update

By Emma Richards | Project Fundraiser

MAITS are thrilled to report that to date, we have continued to make great strides in rolling out our training programme to support children with special needs in Pakistan.

In partnership with Ziauddin University, MAITS has just finished training 6 therapists as Master Trainers (MTs) in February 2021. Three of our Master Trainers have begun to train local community healthworkers in rural regions.

Afshan Memon, a MAITS Master Trainer and Speech Language Therapist/Audiologist, has delivered this in partnership with The Talk Clinic in Hyderabad, Sindh Province. This is the very first time MAITS has trained in this region.

Afshan has just finished training 15 healthworkers here and has generated so much interest, that MAITS have been featured on the local news channel Abbtakk News.

We've included a link to this video of the coverage as we are proud of this fantastic achievement.

Afshan is already confident that through local community health workers, the clinic will be able to reach many more parents, carers and children with developmental disabilities in the rural regions of Hala, Nawabshah, Matli and beyond.

At ACELP Institute of Child Development, Karachi, Pakistan, MAITS have trained 6 therapists as Master Trainers who have just trained 15 Community Healthworkers (CHWS). They will now reach and impact upon the lives of many more children with special needs.

Thank you to all of our trainers, volunteers, supporters and partners in our work. You are hugely important to us.

Links:

https://maits.sharepoint.com/sites/Maits/Shared%20Documents/Maits%20Photos/2021/Pakistan/VIDEO-2021-04-09-13-26-35.mp4

Permalink

Dec 17, 2020
MAITS's Successful Training in Pakistan

By Meheen Dalamal | Chair

ACELP, Pakistan

Dear Friends,

I want to begin by acknowledging the challenges we have faced as a global community over the last few months. Children with developmental disabilities and their families have been severely impacted by the pandemic and there has been limited access to therapeutic support and medicines in some regions, specifically India and Pakistan.

The adaptation of our Community Healthworker Empowerment Programme (CHW) online is therefore critical, as we continue to support people with special needs. This need is more urgent given that children with cerebral palsy are more vulnerable to the virus.

Phase One of MAITS’s programme sees local therapists train as Master Trainers, who will then deliver this to Community Healthworkers in the field over the coming months, ensuring this a sustainable community led initiative.

MAITS are delighted to report that from October 2020, MAITS expert Master Trainers, Aasiya Faris Sachwani (Speech-Language Pathologist) Aen-ul-Huda, Nazia Nadeeb and Saadia Asif (Speech Therapists) delivered 6 weeks’ training to a total of 29 therapists in partnership with four leading Karachi NGOs - Indus Hospital, ACELP, URAAN Paediatric Therapy Services and Al Rozan, Karachi. These organisations are recognised in Pakistan for their pioneering work in supporting children with developmental disabilities. Our newly qualified Master Trainers now include teachers, nurses, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists and will ensure that knowledge and expertise is kept within local communities where access to therapeutic support is limited –creating a pool of experts best able to meet the needs of children. We hope that we will be able to resume our Phase Two of this programme in a face-to-face capacity, subject to COVID restrictions.

Whilst 2020 has been hugely challenging for all organisations, including small scale NGOs like MAITS, your support has been crucial in enabling us to continuing evolving and adapting our work – and we are incredibly grateful for each and every one of you for the part you have played.

Thank you.

We do hope you have a peaceful and safe Christmas and New Year!

With all best wishes,

Meheen Dalamal

Chair, MAITS

ACELP, Pakistan

Links:

Permalink

Aug 3, 2020
Project Update - How we are continuing to support children with disabilities in Pakistan

By Esther Hamilton | Chief Executive Officer

Aasiya delivering training

Dear Friends,

I want to begin by acknowledging the challenges we have faced as a global community over the last few months, both with the COVID-19 pandemic and important conversations about racial justice and equality. I hope this update finds you and your families safe and well during such unprecedented times.

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. Despite these difficult circumstances, MAITS is determined to continue to support children with disabilities in Pakistan whilst we wait for safety to deliver face-to-face programmes.

Over the past three months, we have worked closely with our expert trainers to deliver an online training programme to one of these organisations, Eilya Carehome, an NGO and school supporting 80 children with disabilities. This resulted in a fantastic 13-session online course, delivered by five of our trainers, which directly targeted Eilya's needs.

Ther were 22 members of staff who attended our training sessions, ranging from therapists to special educational needs teachers. You can see Aasiya Sachwani, speech and language therapist based in Toronto, Canda, delivering her session on supporting families in the home in the photo below.

The training was a great success- both trainees and trainers were so pleased with the format that we are now coordinating a digitalised version of the Community Healthworker Training programme, which we will be running over the next few months to organisations all over the world. You can find out more about this programme by following our social media accounts (as listed below).

As you know, at the end of March 2020, three of the expert therapists from Karachi were also due to be delivering life-changing training to 36 community health workers at AURA, a local healthcare NGO in the Karachi area. This was unfortunately interrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, which resulted in nation-wide school closure in Pakistan. We will be rescheduling the training in the Karachi for when it will be safe to deliver, as this organisation will benefit from face-to-face training from our local expert trainers. We will bring you more updates on this programme in our next report.

We are so hugely grateful for your support of MAITS’ work at this very challenging time.

With all best wishes,

Esther

CEO, MAITS

Training content for our partners

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.