Brian and Alexis in the Field

This spring, Brian and Alexis will be visiting GlobalGiving projects in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia to learn more about the work that GlobalGiving projects are doing. We will be seeing firsthand how the funds that you have contributed are making an impact in these communities, and we want to show you the difference your donations have made. Along the way, we will be exploring all that East Africa has to offer. We invite you to join us on our two-month adventure by following our blog!

June 18, 2009

Educate, Mobilize, and Empower Tanzania’s Disabled: Project Number 2060

Location: Moshi, Tanzania

After visiting over 15 projects and traveling throughout East Africa, we have been struck, time and time again, by the lack of facilities and infrastructure for the disabled. Almost no buildings, public or private, have wheelchair access and seeing disabled member of society crawling or dragging themselves on the ground is not an uncommon sight. Sadly, the needs of the disabled community are often overlooked by the development agenda. For this reason, we were very excited to visit KASI, an organization addressing the unique needs of people with spinal cord injuries (often left paralyzed below the waist) in Tanzania. In fact, this is the only such organization in Tanzania.

Through targeted advocacy campaigns, KASI is changing the way the public thinks about and responds to the needs of their disabled members. For example, a recent campaign successfully encouraged local banks to build ramps. Now KASI members can, for the first time, open savings accounts. Also, in order to fight the strong stigma facing the disabled, KASI hosted a bi-weekly radio show to educate the community.

In Tanzania, hospitals discharge spinal cord injury patients with little to no counseling, making it difficult and confusing for patients to adjust to their new life. KASI reaches out to the spinally injured to offer them training in life-skills such as relationships, wheelchair maintenance, and income generation. Members are also trained in health, especially the prevention of pressure sores, caused by the lack of sensation in the legs, and can too often be fatal. Currently, KASI lacks the appropriate facilities to conduct these trainings. With funds exclusively donated through GlobalGiving, KASI has recently purchased land to build a center which will act as a training space, counseling center, and dispensary. This center will also have dorms where the recently injured patients can stay and receive care during recovery. Here, a wheelchair workshop will be built, where members will be taught how to construct wheelchairs using local materials. This will provide members with income generation and drive down the cost of wheelchairs, currently at an expensive $350 each.

On the last day of our visit, we stopped by the home of Brasilla, who lives on the muddy and rocky slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. As a 6^th grader Brasilla had fallen from a tree, resulting in her being paralyzed from the waist down. Today, Brasilla is 33, and a proud member of KASI. Just last week, she received a new wheel chair which tips less on the rough African terrain, she gladly reported. Following her injry, Brasilla felt depressed and alone. As treasurer of KASI’s women’s group, Brasilla told us that KASI has given her a sense of belonging. Yet, with the training she has received; life skills, embroidery, tye-dye, and solar cooking, Brasilla is completely independent. She told us, “I don’t need help from anyone.”

By looking at the overlooked, and serving the underserved, KASI, with the help of the new center, is changing the future for the disabled in Tanzania.

To learn more about this project and how you can help, visit: www.globalgiving.com/2060.

2 years ago