Campaigns

Able Kids Malawi

Able Kids Malawi

Jan 2024
2 Donations
Blantyre, Malawi
4.00%

Imagine being a parent of a child with a disability in a country where there are not only an alarming lack of schools to educate your child, but where stigma suggests that your child does not even deserve an education. Our project is desperately in need of monthly sponsors to continue.

$35,000 Donation Goal
4.00% Raised
$1,400.00 donated
1 Donor
XX Days Left
Our Mission

In Blantyre, Malawi, thanks to the vision and tireless devotion of one man, Victor Musowa, children with disabilities are receiving high quality education, therapy, and nutritious meals. And it’s not just traditional school-aged children who attend this school. Recognizing the critical role of early intervention therapy, this school, the AKF, admits children as young as four months.

Our Purpose

The origin of the clinic was in response to the great demand for the service in Malawi as a lot of kids with special needs were left unattended. The official name, Able Kids Rehab, came about after looking at the stigma attached to the term disability.

Who We Are

The project is under the umbrella of Devxchange — a network of many volunteers of People Helping People. Able Kids Rehab Clinic was opened in April 2013 by Victor Musowa. The origin of the clinic was in response to the great demand for the service in Malawi as a lot of kids with special needs were left unattended. The official name, Able Kids Rehab, came about after looking at the stigma attached to the term disability…

Clinic/School

Early education for children with disabilities.

Nutritious Meals

Nutritious meals are provided to children with disabilities.

Therapy

Early intervention Therapy.

Empowering Families

Mothers of children enrolled train mothers of children on waiting list.

  • Our Story

    Imagine barely being able to feed your family, and wondering how you will continue your income-generating activities when you have simultaneously to care for your child with a disability.

    In Blantyre, Malawi, thanks to the vision and tireless devotion of one man, Victor Musowa, children with disabilities are receiving high quality education, therapy, and nutritious meals. And it’s not just traditional school-aged children who attend this school. Recognizing the critical role of early intervention therapy, this school, the AKF, admits children as young as four months.

    The clinic/school has imported educational ideas from other parts of Africa and the United States and Canada, enabling Victor and his staff to take a much more ambitious and innovative approach to the development of early literacy and numeracy skills in the populations that they serve. Rarely across the entire sub-continent can you find a 6 month old with disabilities that is already in a rehabilitation program. Seldom in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa can you find any organized services for pre-school children with disabilities. But, at the Able Kids Foundation school, you can.

    Victor and his associates are also empowering families to help each other. To promote sustainability, he has developed an innovative training program in which mothers of children currently enrolled in the school train mothers of children on the waiting list on educational and therapy techniques that they can perform with their children at home while they wait for a spot in the school. Victor also has plans to conduct teacher training at the local primary school, so that his students can eventually transition to “traditional” school and receive appropriate support from their teachers.

    AKFs growing impact is taking place in the context of important changes for people with disabilities long overdue throughout Africa. AKF is helping to show the way. This organization has the potential to serve as a model for similar initiatives throughout the country and region. There is support from a growing support network in Canada, a foundation in the United States, universities in the United States and a college in Canada. AKF is demonstrating replicable low-cost, culturally relevant ways to reach some of the neediest children in the entire universe. After fully establishing his school in Blantyre, Victor hopes to open other schools throughout Malawi, and eventually help others replicate his mod...

  • Services provided

    Education: we offer pre school education to kids with special needs with a goal of preparing them for public school, this is a very unique service as kids with disabilities don’t have preschool access thereby stopping them to start school on time.

    Speech Therapy: we offer intensive speech and language stimulation to facilitate independent communication.

    Physiotherapy: we offer intensive muscle and movement stimulation to facilitate mobility and posture.

    Occupational Therapy: we offer intensive gross and fine motor stimulation, and training in activities of daily living.

    Audiological Assessment: we offer basic hearing screening and assessment and referral for further management.

    Specialised Equipment: We design and fabricate locally made adaptive equipment for use in class and at home.

    Counselling: we offer parent to parent and therapist parent counselling to offer social support to parents and avoid denial/stigma that can lead to neglect.

    Feeding Program: we offer a nutritious breakfast, lunch and snack to all children attending school.

  • Needs for the clinic

    The needs going forward include expanding the infrastructure of the clinic (e.g. building wells).

    We feel need to need to expand the clinic’s reach into the community.

    Able Kids Rehab is currently looking to relocate and build a larger school to be able to serve more children and to decrease the size of the wait list. The City of Blantyre has offered a plot of land free of charge for just such a building.

    Able Kids also would like to become more securely funded as we are often going from month to month not knowing if they will have enough funding for the next month.

    This is a not for profit organization, but they would love to be able to pay all of their staff, currently there are some staff members being paid with sugar and soap.