Today we are telling you about an extraordinary reality, a network of solidarity and social commitment, which makes the people involved a true family to which TDE, in its own small way, has recently given support in its most appropriate form, through technology.
Solidarity Communities aroundis a non-profit organization founded in 2007 to promote the rights of all women and men in the global south. The association firmly believes in the potential that every people and every community can express – if put in a position to overcome the constraints and inequalities that have impeded their progress: every person, irrespective of their social, health and economic disadvantage, has before them a path of hope and emancipation that is possible, and the mission of the non - profit organization is precisely to promote solidarity, to stimulate it, to make it appreciated, to put it within everyone's reach, and to make people perceive that every small gesture of solidarity contains within it a seed of the future, which can change history, of those who receive it and those who perform it.
The association operates with absolute respect for autonomy and local identities, collaborates with communities, their representatives and grassroots organizations, and acts in liaison with Gondwana—Association for Cooperation and Popular Diplomacy, whose projects it has supported since its inception. It works mainly in Africa and Latin America and has specifically implemented international cooperation programs for children and adolescents with disabilities in Tanzania and Ecuador.
The reason why disability is the primary focus of the non-profit organisation, especially in Tanzania, is simple: as Vincenzo and Giovanni, civil service volunteers who work mainly in the Tanzanian metropolis of Dar Es Salaam, told us in an interview, the local population, in addition to being afflicted by the well-known problems of malnutrition and health, experiences a serious social problem with regard to two hereditary genetic conditions: albinism and disability, caused by intermarriage between relatives, which is widespread especially in the country's most remote rural areas. Some popular beliefs in sub-Saharan Africa attribute miraculous powers to the body parts of albinos, so that local 'witch doctors' use them to prepare potions that are then resold at a high price; while disability is a great taboo and is seen by the local community as a curse, so much so that disabled children live practically segregated at home, deprived of all rights or discriminated against in special classes.
The fight against the social exclusion of the disabled is an objective that could not be separated from medical rehabilitation. For these reasons, the association has implemented (and still does) programs inspired by community-based rehabilitation, an intervention philosophy according to which the community is directly involved in the rehabilitation process. In other words, rehabilitation intervention is not aimed exclusively at the disabled person, but evaluates the entire living context, precisely to reduce or eliminate both architectural and social barriers.
The aim is the autonomy of the person, the objective is their social integration.
In order for this to be possible, occupational therapists must transfer knowledge about the different disabilities and rehabilitation skills to those in the community, decentralizing the actions as much as possible to the local area and at the same time creating more job opportunities. This is why so many initiatives are being carried out in INUKA's rehabilitation centers in the village of Wanging'omb, Antonia Verna - in the metropolis of Dar Es Salaam - and Mbeya (also known as 'Simama CBR' - where Simama literally means 'standing' and CBR stands for Community Based Rehabilitation):
- Children receive rehabilitation therapies and are looked after by a multidisciplinary team from a motor, cognitive, speech and general health point of view. If they are unable to reach the center, they receive home care;
- Where possible, the centers are equipped with gyms, doctors' offices, and training rooms;
- Families and caregivers are involved in training activities to learn more about disability-related issues;
- The centers forge collaborations on the territory to be more capillary and guarantee everyone the right to receive the necessary care;
- Inclusive education is provided;
- Meetings are organized with local authorities and citizens to promote the center and make its services known
- Special medical support is given to cases of epilepsy;
- Training is provided for pregnant women and for proper nutrition.
... and much more.
In this way, all the activities “parallel” to the actual rehabilitation encourage the village to take charge of the person with disabilities and this is ensured by the network of relationships that enhance their residual abilities and capacities. Thus, Community Based Rehabilitation provides a concrete and effective response to the participative living needs of disabled people.
The objective of the ONLUS is to patiently bring about, one small step at a time, a real change, a cultural change, which starts from within and focuses on raising the awareness and responsibility of the community, to give it a concrete possibility of autonomous and independent development. As we well know, change is a long and important process, difficult to implement, but from the words of Vincenzo and Giovanni exude the passion and commitment of those who know how to wait and want to really help, in the right way:
"Behavior makes all the difference! We tiptoed in and made ourselves accepted. We approached the local community, learned Swahili and thus gained their trust. We adapted western ideas to those of Tanzania and never replaced them; after all, let us not forget that we are guests here. Patience and cooperation are the watchwords for change!"
Once we got to know the people of this large family that spreads solidarity around the world, we immediately embraced the goal of giving dignity and hope to people with disabilities and their families in the Global South, and in full respect of our corporate values of activism and social commitment, we decided to act concretely, as always by putting technology at the service of humanity!
By the direct hand of the President of the Association, Michelangelo Chiurchiù, we had a number of laptops equipped with a management system for recording and storing clinical data delivered to the socio-rehabilitation centers run by the archdiocese of Mbeya, the southwest region of Tanzania.
Hardware and software for data management and archiving in that context become extraordinarily important tools because they not only help volunteers and local operators to create a structured, standardized and therefore replicable working system, but above all allow them to record, monitor and archive data on the treatment of each individual patient and thus to have a streamlined clinical history for each one.
In fact, one of the biggest problems of socio-rehabilitation centers is precisely the difficulty of managing and storing clinical data, considering first of all the infrastructural problems and then those related to volunteer turnover: the centers are not always equipped with a stable Internet network, the few computers available are slow and obsolete. Added to this is the fact that volunteer staff often come from the civil service, which lasts for six months, which means that people change periodically and that each of them uses different data recording methods. The result? No working model, poorly organized clinical history per patient, data that are never uniform, fragmented and often illegible.
Our goal - of TDE and the NGO together - is to officially launch, as of January 2023, 'standard operating procedures' that will help the centers to work methodically, faster and in a more organized manner, thanks to far more optimal devices and programs; in the meantime, we are already working on the next step, which is the training of local operators.
Clearly, the system was designed to be absolutely easy to use and super-intuitive: to date it provides few functions, but future updates are planned in order to make the management system more and more complete. Then who knows... maybe one day the socio-rehabilitation centers in Tanzania will be able to become the leaders of a system of standardization of the work of the ONLUS operational centers to promote the right to care, equality and equal opportunities in many other developing countries, and we too will feel a little more useful to the world.
TDE has always placed the wellbeing of the individual at the heart of its mission: in all the projects we choose to pursue, we combine the values of ethics, transparency and inclusion, and combine technology, science and philanthropy.We don't just want to dream of a fairer, more sustainable society supported by smart technologies, we like to turn ideals into effective action. That is how we can make a difference!
We believe that in all things it is not the what but the how you do it that is most important, and we certainly did it with love!
Asante! (Thank you!)
20/05/22
Oriana Torregrossa | Digital & Communication Manager TDE | Digital & Communication Manager TDE