Medical Needs
Accomplish funds a variety of healthcare services in Africa. We provide grants to the Kyaninga Child Development Centre to support its occupational and physiotherapy work in Uganda. We also fund a series of epilepsy clinics, bringing medicine and prescriptions to remote, rural communities in Uganda. In Malawi we support the Heart of Mercy, which cares for severely disabled children.
Kyaninga Child Development Centre
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​Kyaninga Child Development Centre (KCDC) is based in Fort Portal, Uganda, and it offers occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy. It has established a second centre in Kasese.
Accomplish provides a grant for the salaries of three Ugandan therapists and a social worker, as an efficient way to reach large numbers of children, and a long-term investment in local expertise.
Epilepsy
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Accomplish runs eight rural epilepsy clinics, spreading from Kagando to beyond Fort Portal, a huge area of western Uganda. Approximately 800 children now receive treatment through these clinics, where medical professionals
diagnose epilepsy and provide prescriptions, medication and information.
Heart of Mercy
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The Heart of Mercy project is like a large family, caring for disabled children and their parents or guardians, usually grandparents. It is based in poor villages surrounding the picturesque southern Malawian town of Zomba. Battling with abject poverty and a society which can often reject disabled children and their families.
Accomplish funds four members of staff who visit the children and families in their homes each month, providing support, basic therapy advice and health monitoring. The Heart of Mercy parents and guardians also meet together regularly so they can support each other as they face huge difficulties, so parents are better able to care for their children, as well as discovering they are not alone.
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Accomplish supports a thriving goat project, the goats of which can be milked to help with the nutrition of the children. The goats belong to the children, which increases their social standing within their villages and can also help with income generation. Accomplish supports this and other small income generation projects in the villages, to help alleviate some of the poverty and subsequent malnutrition the families of disabled children experience.
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In 2024, Accomplish helped support Heart of Mercy’s dream to have a dedicated centre for disabled children, purchasing land and building the foundations. The building will be constructed during 2025 and updates on this can be found via our social media sites on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn). The new centre will be a safe place children can come to receive care, develop friendships and receive basic therapy and education. They will be provided with a nutritious meal and it will enable their carers to have much needed respite, enabling them to carry out work.
APT Kenya
APT Kenya is run by The Potters House and supported by Accomplish Children’s Trust. Many children with disabilities find simple actions such as sitting or standing on their own difficult and are at risk of developing joint and muscle deformities, if they cannot move themselves or are left sitting or lying in limited positions during the day. Postural management, by which a child’s posture and position is supported throughout the day can help prevent deformities and reduce discomfort. It enables them to interact in an upright position and experience different positions for play and communication. In a recent survey, 100% of parents reported that their children were ‘very happy’ after using APT’s equipment and had reduced levels of pain.
APT stands for Appropriate Paper-based Technology and is a technique by which items, including specialist supportive seating and standing equipment for children with disabilities, can be made using paper and cardboards. The use of this technique enables bespoke pieces of equipment to be made to measure using cheap, locally available and lightweight materials.
The equipment APT Kenya provide is truly lifechanging to the children and families receiving it. It has reduced the number of chest infections/coughs children have and made feeding them much easier for their carers. It helps promote development of physical skills, such as head control and hand use and by changing people’s perceptions of the child, can significantly improve the amount of times others interacts with the child, with one parent commenting that ‘my child is no longer lonely’. It has even enabled one child to start attending school.
APT trains parents to help make the equipment, providing financial support in the local area and they have children travelling for many miles to obtain the equipment. They are hoping to continue to expand their operations, in order to be able to support more children with this vital equipment and are continuing to train others in how to assess and make this equipment, so that it can be used in other areas of Africa.
