The motto of the Ontario Physiotherapy Association is “Freedom to Function”. Sixteen children with disabilities in Kenya and Tanzania were given just that, and have benefited from treatment and equipment funded by members of the Northwestern Ontario District of the Ontario Physiotherapy Association (NWO-OPA).

Unlike Canada, public health care in Kenya and Tanzania is not readily accessible. One in every six Kenyans, while coping with severe poverty, is also struggling with one or more disabilities. These disabilities prevent many children from attending school and their parents from working. Others are further disadvantaged because they are orphans of AIDS. As a result, the cost of corrective surgery, wheelchairs, and physiotherapy can be prohibitive with even simple equipment such as crutches, being beyond their means.

Members of the district Physiotherapy Association voted to send $2000 to sponsor surgeries & rehabilitation for children with disabilities after a presentation made by Elaine Foster-Seargeant, a Thunder Bay physiotherapist. Foster-Seargeant had visited the Kitere Orthopaedic Workshop and Rehabilitation Centre in Kenya in 2003 where she saw, first hand, many people who had crawled or been carried by their caregivers up to ten kilometers in order to reach the Centre, hoping for treatment.

A former student of Foster-Seargeant’s, currently working in Kenya, started the Kenya Working Group (KWG) to support the Kitere Workshop, and continues to provide updates regarding the children sponsored by the NWO physiotherapists. Four children underwent corrective leg surgeries and bracing when necessary, nine others were provided with a period of intensive physiotherapy, and another two children received wheelchairs. The association also helped to sponsor surgery for an eight year old girl who had severely broken her leg and was suffering from complications.

The children who benefited from the surgeries ranged in age from 2 to 17. Some were born with congenital deformities such as club foot, some had contracted diseases such as polio; causing muscle paralysis and weakness resulting in shortening of the leg muscles, and preventing them from standing and walking. Surgery and bracing made the difference between crawling for the rest of their lives and being able to stand and, in some cases, to walk.

The donation also allowed other children and their caregivers from the surrounding district to be transported, housed, and taught exercises during one week of intensive physiotherapy at the Rehabilitation Centre. The children made amazing progress over this short period of time. Some, who had never stood before, were able to stand with equipment. Two children aged 6 and 9 walked for the first time in their lives.

The connection between NWO physiotherapists and Africa continues.

Kate Jones, a physiotherapist who formerly worked at St. Joseph’s Care Group in Thunder Bay, is the currently the sole physiotherapist in a hospital in Ndolage, Tanzania through Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). After visits from three NWO therapists, NWO-OPA members voted to contribute funds to pay for a wheelchair; while another local therapist and her family contributed individually to purchase a second wheelchair. One went to a young man with a brain injury. The other, to a seven year old girl with paralyzed legs caused by spinal tuberculosis. Without this equipment, these individuals and others like them otherwise spend the rest of their lives lying on floor mats, not even being able to afford beds.

For further information regarding the Kitere Orthopaedic Workshop and Rehabilitation Centre contact Elaine Foster-Seargeant at 343-2114 or browse the KWG website at www.kenyaworkinggroup.org.

For more information on Physiotherapy visit www.opa.on.ca.