KYANINGA CDC TRUST
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Mission Statement
Creating equal opportunities for children with disabilties in western Uganda
About This Cause
Kyaninga CDC Trust supports the work of Kyaninga Child Development Centre in Western Uganda. Established in 2014 to provide much needed high quality, specialised and affordable assessment, treatment, education and support to children with disabilities, and their families and carers, to enable them to lead more independent lives. KCDC was founded by Steve and Asha Williams, who experienced first-hand the challenges faced by families raising a child with disabilities in Uganda, through their own personal search for help with their son, Sidney. In 2013, they advertised internationally for a volunteer to come and help them and in this way met Fiona Beckerlegge, a paediatric physiotherapist who was willing to provide intensive therapy with Sidney for 6 months. Fiona became the 3rd co-founder and now runs the day-to-day operations of the child development centre in Uganda. The Rwenzori region of western Uganda is a predominantly rural district, where tea, coffee and cocoa plantations and subsistence farming are the main industries, with a mean income of less than USD $100 per month and the majority of families in the rural communities surviving on less than $2 a day. Because of the low standards of healthcare and limited education in the region, the community faces high rates of children born with disabilities (4% aged 2-17 years old), many of which are related to damage to the infant brain during pregnancy, childbirth and the first few months of life. Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalized groups worldwide, and in Uganda, where access to healthcare and rehabilitation is extremely limited, especially in rural areas, approximately 13% (2.5 million) children are living with a disability. Widespread local beliefs that disabilities are an untreatable curse, cause disabled children to be excluded from their communities, lead to high levels of paternal abandonment, increased family stress, financial burdens and a reluctance to seek help. This poor understanding of disability is a huge barrier to the progress, learning and independence of many children. In addition to these social barriers, there is poor understanding of disability among healthcare workers and very few trained therapists able to provide adequate rehabilitation. Furthermore, the cost of travel to the limited services, and the fees charged for them, are prohibitive to most families. Early intervention with rehabilitation therapies (physio, occupational, speech and orthopaedic) and parental education can have a significant reduction in the levels of impairment experienced as the child grows, and greater functional independence as the child is given opportunities and intervention at a much earlier stage, preventing secondary disabilities. KCDC’s multi-disciplinary, holistic and community-driven organisation works hard to create equal opportunities for children with disabilities and reduce the stigma and discrimination they face. KCDC’s mandate is to provide high quality therapy and rehabilitation services, promote awareness and education of disability amongst community members, give technical training to both caregivers and clients and economically empower families and caregivers. KCDC’s innovative community outreach programme, partnering with government and private health facilities and schools has enabled more than 3,200 CWDs access to qualified and specialist education and therapy services that would otherwise be unavailable, inaccessible or unaffordable. KCDC is the only centre in Western Uganda providing these specialist therapy services, as well as being the only centre providing this holistic approach of community-based rehabilitation at a cost affordable to all. Because most of the families KCDC supports live in extreme poverty and do not have enough income to support the high costs of caring for a child with a disability, KCDC only charges a nominal $1 monthly subscription fee or payment in kind of local produce, for its services. KCDC relies largely on donors to support its work. In an effort become less reliant and more self-sustaining, the Kyaninga Dairy was opened in 2016 to supply the Ugandan market with high-end cheese, and all proceeds from the dairy are directed towards supporting KCDC in its work. Additionally, three annual fundraising sporting events (Kyaninga Triathlon, Running the Rift and Ride the Rift) are held to further raise much needed funds for the centre.