Goldstar Insurance, a leading insurance company in Uganda, in the spirit of corporate social responsibility, last week donated an assortment of wheelchairs to needy Katalemwa Cheshire Children’s Home.
Katalemwa Cheshire Home specializes in comprehensive rehabilitation for children with disabilities (CWD’s) and their families. It receives over 20, 000 cases annually. They have a bed capacity of only 200.
According Paul Kavuma, the deputy managing director of Goldstar Insurance, the donation of 25 wheelchairs marked the start of a range of activities to mark twenty years of Goldstar Insurance operating in Uganda.
“We saw the need to support and we want to continue working with Katalemwa. This is not the last time you are seeing us. We will come back again. As staff of Goldstar Insurance we shall identify other needs and come back to support,” Kavuma said.
Samali Matovu, the executive director of Katalemwa Cheshire Children’s Home acknowledged that the donation “will take us a long way in rehabilitating children’, she added that many parents cannot afford to buy appliances for their children hence the need for support from organizations like Goldstar.
“With the new wheelchairs from Goldstar, children will be able to access social services like education because they can now move to school. Mobility had hampered them.” Matovu, who revealed that sustaining the home’s activities is a challenge, said.
For the last 46 years, Katalemwa Cheshire Children’s Home has been offering services to disabled parents and children. Among services the home offers is physiotherapy, medial rehabilitations, psychosocial support and equipment, community outreaches, education, economic empowerment, home based care and advocacy.
They receive children as young as one year suffering from a range of complications and deformities. Many of the children are suffering from spina bifida, hydrocephalous, cerebral pulse, intellectual disabilities, and bone deformities among others.
The home has a team of professionals who offer services like occupational therapy, physiotherapy, counselling, measurement and fitting of assistive devices, construction of therapy equipment at home using locally available raw materials and empowering caregivers with basic rehabilitation skills. The team also meets with community leaders to create awareness about disabilities and their management.
“We go through stages, after one stage, we go to another, sometimes the child takes a lot of time to learn a stage. We work with parents and we teach them how to rehabilitate their children. What we do parents learn.” Said Olive Nabiryo, an occupational therapist at the home. Many of the children have weak limbs, they can support their bodies.
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