1. GLOBAL DISABILITY CARE

We continued to provide empowerment, dignity, and support to people with disabilities in Haiti, Uganda, and South Sudan. Last year, we provided over 1,450 wheelchairs, more than 300 prosthetic and orthotic devices, and thousands of rehabilitation sessions. We also opened a new rehab garden for patients with spinal cord injuries in Haiti, hosted another wonderful 'Night to Shine' for young people with special needs, and got a new vehicle in Uganda, enabling us to reach more people through mobile clinics.

Night to Shine 2023 from Hope Health Action on Vimeo.

We had the extraordinary privilege to host the second ever Night to Shine event in northern Haiti! Night to Shine, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, is an annual global prom experience centred on God’s love for people with special needs. On 10 February, we witnessed 81 honoured guests crowned kings and queens, each called by name and cheered on as they strolled down the red carpet!

Additionally, 115 parents and caregivers were honoured and encouraged. In Haiti, people with disabilities are often stigmatised and rarely, if ever, celebrated. One parent shared this testimony… “In Haiti, you don’t see kids with disabilities ever leave their houses. I didn’t know the party would have so many people in it. I loved how everyone was accepting of the children, and everyone danced together. Everyone was so happy, and there was no judgement! We felt that all the kids were safe and we weren’t worried about anyone being mean to them or staring at them because of their disabilities.”

Not only was it impactful for our honoured guests and their caregivers, but also for the volunteers. One volunteer shared this about his experience: “This was my first time volunteering at Night to Shine. I was a bit worried at first because I didn’t know how to dance with my buddy who was in a wheelchair. But once I saw how excited my buddy was to just hold hands and sway, we both really got into it! The party was a lot of fun, and I’m happy to have a new friend now.” 146 volunteers came together to make Night to Shine a memorable event for our honoured guests. From handing out name tags and serving food, to cheering at the red carpet and being a "buddy" for the evening - each and every volunteer helped make this event a tremendous success!

We want to express our thanks to those who partnered with us for this event: Tim Tebow Foundation, Hopital De La Convention Baptiste D'Haiti (HCBH), YWAM Cap Haitien, Emmaus House, Streethearts, Helping Haitian Angels, Footprints of the Son, Children of the Promise, and our very own HHA volunteers!

Brooke, our Disability Coordinator in Haiti, did an amazing job coordinating this entire event. She shared, “[Hope Health Action] works hard to teach the importance of inclusion in our community, and events such as Night to Shine do this in such a beautiful way. To have each child be specially crowned, called by name down the red carpet, and get to enjoy a party just for them is such a blessing. The smiles on everyone’s faces show just how meaningful the event was to them.”

In total, 342 people attended Night to Shine 2023 in Cap Haitien, Haiti. What a grand display of inclusion and God’s love for all! Here’s to Night to Shine 2024! For more information about this event, visit the official Night to Shine website.

In conjunction with National Superhero Day on Thursday 28th April 2022, we’re encouraging everyone to put on their superhero costumes and raise vital funds for vulnerable children across the world.

So grab your masks and get ready to release your superhero powers!

By taking part in this event, you will be raising vital funds to enable HHA to continue to deliver our mission, and give vulnerable children and their families a bright future. 

To register your interest, please click here. 

But what did they get up to on their latest visit?

1. Spent some time meeting the new Rehab centre team

We spent a few days with each member of staff getting to know them individually, conducting group training on company expectations and policy, running through practical process for how the centre will function, and
ideas for the future. We were impressed with the experience and attitude of the team and are hopeful we have the right group of people to start fulfilling our vision across northern Uganda with the new disability centre!

We are pleased to introduce the talented new team who will be staffing our centre! Check out this blog post to meet the team.

2. Spent some time meeting the CBR team

We met the CBR team and conducted a two-day training which was geared towards refreshing the original training, encouraging identification of people in the community who will benefit from the centre services, encouraging collaboration between the centre staff/departments and the CBR team, and hearing from their successes and challenges in the field. The CBR team play a critical role and we want to support them with further training to help their work.

It was very encouraging hearing the good work they have already been doing under this project. Despite the challenges of COVID we heard inspiring stories of many families being supported through the CBR team through HHA wheelchair provision and emergency food aid and different advocacy efforts. For instance, one CBR worker shared how they had recently managed to support some parents through a difficult period when their child was unexpectedly born with a disability.

3. Stakeholder Mapping and Collaboration

An important part of the trip was mapping out various healthcare stakeholders, visiting hospitals, meeting authorities and creating referral pathways for collaboration with the centre. During the trip we met and visited the In-patient Orthopaedic unit Health Centre 3 BidiBidi Zone 1- the inpatient unit. We visited the unit and met the orthopaedic technician. This is the site where the Miracle Feet club foot procedures take place. The inpatient unit is a temporary structure staffed by one technician (no physiotherapist/nurses) and is a referral centre for almost 30 clinics in northern Uganda.

4. Kalaji Community Visit- Food Security

We visited Kalaji Community which sits right on the South Sudanese border and is predominantly a displaced community. Recently, we supported 1,200 people with food and hygiene packages and we went to visit the people who received that help and understand better the challenges in the community surrounding nutrition and security.

This family pictured above received food from HHA during June 2021 when we provided 1,200 members of the Kalaji community with emergency food. This community is predominantly refugee (ca.60/70%). On top of the
challenges of living in an extremely poor/remote area, recently the Ugandan government has started trying to reclaim the land. This seems to be due to rumours that there are South Sudanese rebels living in the
forest and a desire by the government for the land to become a protected environmental area. In June 2021, soldiers suddenly came and violently dismantled everyone's houses in the area. This has made daily
living extremely difficult. He said HHA’s support helped his family a lot to eat twice a day. For the future he dreams of staying on his land.

However, wherever possible we want to try and transition children from being at the Maison to being at mainstream schools. We believe that if children at the Maison are capable of being in a mainstream school environment, that this is where they should be and we will fight for them to be accepted by schools locally to them. In some cases schools will simply refuse, believing that they don’t have the capacity or facilities to support the child. We have had children at the Maison who we have fought for yearly to attend mainstream schools and we simply haven’t found a good fit for them. However, we also have some great success stories.

Sophie, Left

This is Sophie. She began attending a mainstream school last September, after transitioning from attending Maison de Benediction 5 days a week. If you speak to any of the staff at the Maison about Sophie they’ll tell you about her love of dancing and her insatiable curiosity. She was a child that was always on the move, a leader in activities. Since starting mainstream school Sophie has continued to dance- her new school teacher spoke to us about how she is always engaged in class, just not necessarily with the activity she’s meant to be focussed on! In this way she is like any other child her own age. She needs extra support but she is more than capable of being in a mainstream classroom. It is not only Sophie that is benefiting from attending her new school, but for her family also. Her parents are hugely proud of her. In Haiti a school education is a big achievement and one that parents work very hard to ensure they can bring about for their children.

Sophie with her new classmates 

Not all the children at the Maison would be able to attend a mainstream school in Haiti. However, successes such as Sophie’s inspire us to fight hard for inclusion, despite the challenges. Attending a mainstream school enables these children to integrate into their local community, make friends close by and follow the same curriculum as their peers. When we open the new classroom at the Maison de Benediction we are going to be able to offer a greater level of education to children who for various different reasons might not be suited to mainstream education. However, we will continue to fight hard for those we believe have been unfairly excluded. Stories like Sophie’s show us that inclusion is possible. All it takes is people willing to work hard for it. 

– Nelson Mandela

If knowledge is power, as the saying goes, then surely education and training is the most important form of empowerment we possess when working with the developing world.

But what makes it so powerful? Why can equipping someone with skills and knowledge change not only their lives but the lives of those around them?

According to World Bank (2012) 59% of Haitians live on less than US$2 per day.

With only 29 percent of Haitians 25 and above having attended secondary school (USAID 2015), it is hard to imagine how Haitians can aspire towards the better pay of skilled jobs requiring further or specialist education. Job security and income consistency is also limited, with over two-thirds of the labor force without formal jobs (CIA Factbook 2014).

Equipping individuals with the required skills and knowledge to perform more skilled labour increases employability, job security, and income. Education also transforms the vulnerable and undervalued by providing confidence and pride in their work. Occupation, practical and purposeful activities either inside and outside of the context of employment, allows people to live independently and have a sense of identity.

Finally, education doesn’t just impact the individual, but those around them. Their increased income improves living conditions for their dependents, such as providing funds for healthcare and education for their children. But also, in teaching individuals and groups, they can teach others. This is long-term sustainable impact, changing generations and communities.

By impacting small groups, we really can eventually impact nations.

At HCBH, three specific forms of training are currently happening - physiotherapy, biomedical engineering, and SEN teaching.

Special Education Needs teaching specialises in the facilitation of education for those with physical or sensory impairments, learning disabilities or behavioural issues. At the Maison de Benediction, children with a wide range of abilities with varying needs are loved, cared for, and taught. The MdB had been lucky enough to receive support recently from a SEN teacher named Jess and a speech and language therapis named Julia from the UK. Showing the staff new or alternative techniques, resources, or exercises helps expand their ability to care for the kids. By furthering their understanding of each child's needs, and developing new lessons and teaching plans, both the staff and children are developed.

It was amazing watching how engaged the kids were in their teaching sessions, and they definitely enjoyed the new songs that have been translated into creole!

The biomed training is an important step for the hospital. HCBH will now have an onsite biomed team who will be repairing and maintaining all the hospitals equipment. Medical Aid International (http://www.medaid.co.uk/) has run an intensive 2 weeks course for prospective engineers from HCBH and JUH, supplying them with tool kits and testing equipment. The new engineers have had a huge amount to learn in a short time (and they were pretty nervous about their exams!) but they’ve all passed. Many of the students did not come from a formal engineering, electrician or medical background, so it's been quite a challenge for them. But they've taken the opportunity to learn and grow, and they have the potential to make a huge impact on the day to day running of the hospital. It's amazing how reliant on technology we are in medicine these days!

Finally, the rehab centre is currently hosting physiotherapy classes three times a week, lead by Alex,a physio from Germany. The physios at the centre have the opportunity to learn about specialist rehabilitation therapies such as Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). The physios are taught both through theory and practical application, learning why neurological damage presents in certain ways, and why certain exercises can benefit particular patients.

The physios have been so keen to learn in the classes, asking questions and quick to get step in and practice. It was wonderful hearing how happy and satisfied they were at how effective exercises could be. For example, they've been working on a shoulder based exercise, lifting and rotating the arm from the hip to above the head. However, it was explained and shown how this exercise could be used to not only work the arm and shoulder, but also the core muscles and even the legs!

They obviously love what they do, and it's fantastic to think that these hard working physios are giving people hope as they slowly regain skills and abilities, or learn to adapt to a new way of life.

Whether it's adapting education for disabled children, fixing broken medical equipment, or helping a stroke patient get back on their feet; education is helping people help others here in HCBH.

With exciting projects like these going on, it's easy to see how equipping people with knowledge and skills really could change the world.

**written by long-term Volunteer Rosie Pearmain**