Cerebral Palsy and Assistive Cardboard Equipment: 2014

In May 2014 my colleague Diane Lyle and I, both of us paediatric physiotherapists from the UK, were fortunate enough to be asked to volunteer on a training assignment in Sandema, in the far north west of Ghana for the Scottish charity Cerebral Palsy Africa - www.cerebralpalsyafrica.org - in conjunction with CBM and Afrikits -www.afrikids.org/ghana

Our 2 week course was also supported by two Ghanaian physiotherapists, Charity Adjety from Accra and Judith Arthur from Kumasi. Its purpose was to give 21 Community Based Rehabilitation officers (CBR), special education officers and health professionals insight and more understanding into the complexities of Cerebral Palsy (CP) and how to handle and help children with CP, how to support their families and how to include them within their communities.

The trainees learn about good handling and positioning and how to motivate children with CP to become more active. Here they are advising a mother.

Constructing a supportive chair from a cardboard box for a child with CP

Learning how to carry and feed children with CP

and get them onto the mother’s back more appropriately

Cerebral Palsy is a condition, caused by damage to the developing brain (e.g. complications during birth, jaundice after birth or infections through meningitis or Cerebral Malaria). This damage can result in problems with movement and posture, communication, feeding/eating, seizures, learning, and behaviour. There is no cure for CP, but much can be done to help children to develop their full potential and include them into their communities, in spite of their disability. Early detection is vital and can make a big difference to the long term outcomes for children with CP.

Many of the mothers and their children with CP who attended for the daily practical sessions of the course came from the area around Sirigu and had been selected by Joe Asakibeem and William from the Afrikids team and the physiotherapy technician Joseph Luguzizing, based in Sandema and working for the Presbyterian CBR team under Maxell Akanden.

The course was well attended and everybody joined in with whatever there was on offer. Much was learned, not just by the trainees and we all enjoyed working together.

A 2nd course was run, in parallel with ours, for mothers and volunteers. They were trained by Veronica Hansen Nortey, Jean Westmacott and Ama Darko Williams to make assistive devices for their children with CP (e.g. special supportive chairs) from cardboard – Appropriate Paper- Paper Technology (APT)