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The newsletter of the Motivation Charitable Trust
Issue 35 August 2009
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Peer Group Training and Sport
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During a recent Peer Group Training (PGT) course in Tanzania, our peer trainers noticed that several participants seemed apprehensive; lacking the confidence to express their opinions. Many of the participants had rarely, if ever, left their homes and relied on family members for help with many aspects of their daily lives. When the time came to try new wheelchair skills, most people were reluctant, claiming: ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘that’s not possible.’ Having seen this problem before, the peer trainers knew the solution: games. First up was a game ‘tag’. Within a few minutes a complete transformation came over the group. Those who had been shy started to come out of their shells, laughing and shouting to one another, as they began to realise how physically ‘able’ they really were.
We see this transformation occur time and again. Participants start the week full of self-doubt, but go home energised and informed, with a greater sense of what is possible and how they can play a part in society.
Peer Group Training
During PGT courses, participants learn and practise mobility skills that can increase their independence. They also learn about healthcare management and skin care, which is crucial for preventing wounds known as pressure ulcers: life-threatening for those with a spinal cord injury (SCI). Participants also discuss their rights as disabled people, brainstorm ways to overcome discrimination and negative attitudes and share experiences of employment, personal relationships and sexuality. While the focus is on specific skills and information, the most important outcome of PGT is the growth in self-confidence which comes through spending time with peers and disabled role models, learning what is possible.
Motivation has run successful PGT courses worldwide, including in Romania, East Timor, Uganda, Tanzania, Albania and Malaysia. We are currently rolling out Training of Trainer packages, where exceptional PGT participants are identified and taught to run PGT courses in their own regions; further expanding the reach of PGT.
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Peer Group Training in Tanzania, March 2009.
Sport
After 10 years of successful programmes, we’ve found that there’s a call for something to follow-on from PGT. As we’ve found time and again, one of the most powerful ways to sustain the wheelchair skills, disability awareness and camaraderie that is established in PGT is through sport.
Disability in low-income countries results in marginalisation and exclusion. Yet, because sport develops mobility and builds confidence, it promotes inclusion and a more active and independent lifestyle. Sport reinforces a lot of the healthcare advice that PGT introduces, and provides a fun atmosphere to practise mobility skills and maintain health. By holding sporting events in public areas, sport can encourage disability awareness in local communities. Sport brings people together on a regular basis, and so strengthens the local disability community by building a shared sense of purpose to challenge discrimination. Ultimately, the skills and independence that PGT and sport produce can provide the participants with the confidence to return to work and generate an income, which is vital to achieving a better quality of life.
To make the effects of sport a reality, Motivation has built partnerships with the International Tennis Federation and the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation.
Over the next year, we will be establishing wheelchair sports programmes in several of our PGT locations, ensuring that the transformations we saw in Tanzania continue to happen for other people in these communities.
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The Worldmade Sport wheelchair is a four-wheel wheelchair and is intended to be used for the promotion and development of wheelchair sports at national or local club level. It is distributed through a network of Worldmade partners worldwide.
Worldwide, the rights of disabled people are often denied, resulting in increasing marginalisation from society. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and its Optional Protocol were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2006. The Convention aims to ensure that disabled people enjoy human rights on an equal basis with others, and makes specific reference to mobility as a human right. The Guidelines on the provision of Manual Wheelchairs in Less Resourced Settings therefore directly address the convention and offer a tool to guide appropriate wheelchair provision and ensure mobility for all people with mobility disabilities. The Guidelines also establish the inherent link between mobility and the realisation of wider human rights: “Providing wheelchairs that that are fit for the purpose not only enhances mobility but begins a process of opening up a world of education, work and social life.” The Guidelines uphold and promote the principles of the UNCRPD and are an important guide towards the realisation of the rights of disabled people worldwide.
As you’ll have read in the main article, Peer Group Training (PGT) is an excellent introduction to wheelchair sports. However the problem has always been that the countries where Motivation runs PGT often lack suitable sports wheelchair solutions.
Recently, the International Paralympic Committee approached Motivation to design a low-cost sports wheelchair to foster grassroots sport in developing countries. The Worldmade Sport wheelchair has been ergonomically designed according to the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) regulations and in conjunction with the International Tennis Federation (ITF). There are two models of Worldmade Sport, one for wheelchair basketball and one for tennis players.
The Worldmade Sport wheelchair is lightweight and uses a rigid tubular steel frame, so it remains repairable and relevant in developing
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Photo: International Tennis Federation
countries. The Worldmade Sport comes with standard sport wheelchair components such as the castor assembly, anti-tipper and quick-release rear wheels, which make it stable and highly manoeuvrable.
The wheelchair is robust and built to withstand the challenges faced by the rough sports environment. The wheelchair is available in four sizes, and many of the components are easily adjustable in order to accommodate individual needs and preferences, especially when the wheelchair is shared between members of the same sport club. The set of straps provided with every Worldmade Sport allows the user to feel safe and improve their performance during practise sessions or in competition.
A typical sports wheelchair for wheelchair basketball or tennis in the UK would cost upwards of £1,500. Stylish and affordable, at just £150 the Worldmade Sport wheelchair is the perfect product for individuals or sport clubs that plan to explore the world of sport from grassroots to competition level. IWBF and ITF have raised funds to provide these chairs to foster grassroots sports development through national sports federations.
The production of the Worldmade Sport wheelchair would not have been possible without the generous support of the Audi Design Foundation (ADF). ADF’s Designs for Life programme not only funded the concept and prototype stage, but also gave a second grant enabling Motivation to take it into full production, making the wheelchairs available for use in developing countries.
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Basila presents a card to Jen
at the end of the Training of
Trainers course.
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My name is Jen Howitt and I’ve been involved with Motivation since 2005, when I started as an office volunteer. Before coming to Motivation, I’d spent eight years playing wheelchair basketball for the US Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball Team, winning a gold medal in Athens in 2004. In my own life, I’ve seen the power of sport as a tool for transformation—after an accident at age nine, it was wheelchair basketball that helped me to move on, make new friends and feel confident about myself and my abilities.
Soon after my volunteer stint with Motivation ended, I was asked to work as a peer trainer at Motivation courses in Zimbabwe and Uganda, and last year I became a full-time Programme Support Officer. I’m based in the UK office but my work with PGT and sport takes me to many of our projects around the world.
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Several months ago, while delivering a Training of Trainers course in Tanzania, I met Basila Njau. Basila is one of our newest peer trainers and has the potential to be one of the best in the country. When I first met her, I could tell immediately that she had exactly the right balance of empathy and strength to make an excellent trainer. In our PGT programmes, we always seek to have a mix of female and male trainers to ensure that women have role models and feel more comfortable sharing their problems. Basila fitted into this new role perfectly and made an excellent addition to our training team.
Basila was injured in a fall from a tree 18 years ago. In 2000, she found our local partner organisation and quickly became an active member, participating in their women’s committee and even playing some wheelchair tennis. When they noticed that she was exceptionally knowledgable about spinal cord injury and very eager to help other women with their problems, they suggested that she consider becoming a peer trainer. Now that she has completed her training, she will be helping to deliver training to hundreds of people with mobility disabilities throughout Tanzania over the next year. Not only will she be busy with her peer training responsibilities, but she plans to go back to school soon and hopes to have her first child in the next few years.
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Jacques Lloyd - Africa Peer Training Coordinator.
Santos demonstrates wheelchair skills during a PGT course.
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My name is Jacques Lloyd. At the beginning of 2009 I joined Motivation as Africa Peer Training Coordinator. Based in Cape Town, my role involves supporting and developing training in South Africa and monitoring new peer trainers in Tanzania and Uganda. I have a high level (C6) spinal cord injury (SCI), sustained 20 years ago. I am a very active wheelchair user and have been involved in peer training for the last 15 years.
Several months ago I met Santos, who lives in Gulu in northern Uganda. A carpenter by profession, he sustained a SCI when he fell off a ladder at work. Like many others, Santos found the dramatic change to his lifestyle very difficult to cope with. He told me: “When the accident happened, my whole life changed. I could not help myself and had to get someone to come and help me. When people looked at me, they saw me as a burden.”
However, Santos’s life changed positively when he received an invitation to attend a Peer Group Training (PGT) course. “When I attended PGT, I met other people with a SCI and realised that they faced the same challenges as me. When I saw what they could do, my life changed. When I returned home, I was not the same person as before. I was able to meet my friends and tell them what I had seen others with a SCI accomplish. From that time up until today, although there are some challenges, I feel a great change in my life.”
Santos is confident that he can make a difference in the lives of others with a SCI and has recently undertaken training to become a peer trainer himself. Santos has started a new business making religious sculptures out of wood. He constantly strives to be independent both on a personal and financial level, and I am confident he will make an excellent peer trainer and role model for others in Uganda to emulate.
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Fred Semakula lives in Gulu, Uganda and has a first hand appreciation of the importance of Peer Group Training (PGT) in low-income countries. Fred sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) when he fell from a tree whilst picking mangos. Many months after his accident, Fred was discharged from hospital without any advice on bowel or bladder management, or how to prevent life-threatening pressure ulcers. Fred was discharged without a wheelchair and when he did finally receive one it was inappropriate for his needs. Fred felt “confined” to the wheelchair. Then he came across Motivation’s PGT programme and has never looked back. Through the programme, Fred received a folding wheelchair and with it came the dawning realisation that he could continue to live his life. These days he calls himself “one of Motivation’s happiest beneficiaries.”
Fred has now attended several PGT courses, first as a participant and then later as a peer trainer. Fred explains, “Before I attended the course I did not see that I had a role to fulfil; now I have a role supporting others and sharing my own experiences to empower them.
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PGT helps those with a SCI to integrate into society. You no longer have to miss school or university; you can join in with all aspects of life. There were many wheelchair users informally supporting each other, but PGT solidifies knowledge and organises the delivery and dissemination of this knowledge. PGT makes it easier for the participants to make a real and positive change to their lives and I am proud to be part of delivering that message.”
Fred (left) supports other wheelchair users.
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UK
Motivation would like to thank the Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust for its generous grant of £100,000 towards Worldmade Enterprises. Coupled with other sources of funding, this grant will enable Worldmade Enterprises to fully launch activities, building up wheelchair services globally. We would particularly like to thank the trustees of Motivation who have given their full backing to this exciting venture.
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Africa
Motivation Africa has continued to develop and deliver a broad range of training courses with our partners during 2009. In Tanzania and South Africa our clinical training in wheelchair assessment and prescription is leading to improved quality of wheelchair services. Our ‘Training of Trainers’ courses is empowering wheelchair users to provide peer support to hundreds of wheelchair users in rural communities. Motivation Africa now has partner organisations in 17 African countries and the demand for our work continues to grow.
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Asia Pacific
In February Motivation Australia ran a training course in wheelchair provision for rehabilitation staff from the Solomon Islands and Kiribati. We will soon be visiting each country, to evaluate the training and provide follow-up support. In July we revisited East Timor, to run a wheelchair provision re-fresher workshop for the rehabilitation staff of our partner ASSERT. We are planning a new programme in Thailand, in partnership with the Sirindhorn National Medical Rehabilitation Centre. Thank you to all our members. For more information, visit: www.motivation.org.au
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Sri Lanka
Following recent conflict in Sri Lanka, Motivation Sri Lanka forged a collaboration with Handicap International to address the immediate mobility needs of internally displaced persons.
We have established the first wheelchair clinic in Sri Lanka, after a building was generously donated by the Ministry of Health (MoH). As well as providing direct services, the clinic provides wheelchairs to the MoH’s only spinal rehabilitation centre in Ragama, and six other partner organisations across the country. An average of 30 wheelchairs is distributed per month through this scheme.
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Shorts
Since October 2008, a small team from Motivation has worked to establish a regional office in Bangalore, and build contacts with a network of organisations that will support the expansion of Worldmade in India. We look forward to updating you further in a future edition of Motif.
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