AFRICA/KENYA - Rehabilitation therapy, support and social re-integration of people with a disability

Rome (Fides Service) - Fifty years ago Medici con l’Africa (CUAMM) (Doctors with Africa) sent its first doctor member on mission to Kenya. CUAMM has since offered assistence to ten different hospitals in various places and today is present in two of the seven provinces in which the country is divided for administration. One of the various initiatives launched by the local CUAMM St. Martin Association in Nyahururu diocese is to extend the network of serve and intensify efforts for prevention.
The Nyahururu project to promote the development of local communities consists in rehabilitation therapy, support and integration of people with a disability, adults and children. Besides involving families in the children’s rehabilitation the project promotes awareness-building initiatives and information on disability for religious and volunteers who work with people with a disability and offere training courses in obsetrics on criteria at birth to reduce the incidence of disability.
In its activity in this African country CUAMM works closely with Catholic missionaries and Catholic health centres run by the local churches and with a number of Italian priests from the diocese of Padua on mission in Kenya.
Challenges facing CUAMM in this work of improving life-quality for people with a disability include improving prospects for adults and guaranteeing schooling for children. (AP) (10/9/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:20; Parole:214)