Update on IFMH Sponsored VSO (Voluntary
Services Overseas) Volunteers
Susan Mottram
IFMH Joint
Study Day Co-ordinator
Leeds
University
Email:
As reported in the Summer 2005 issue of Inform (Vol 16 no.2),
IFM Healthcare has been sponsoring a Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) project in
the Kunene region of Namibia. Two volunteers, Anita Pearson (Disabilities Social
Worker) and Machteld Oltof (Physiotherapist) are working to train
community-based rehabilitation (CBR) volunteers in an area of the country where
resources and budgets are limited. The IFMH grant is enabling Anita, Machteld
and their Namibian colleagues to write a manual to be used in training workshops
for the CBR workers and to print and distribute copies for use in further
training events.
The project is going well and a first draft of the CBR
Volunteers Training Manual was produced. It contained sections on:
-
disability rights awareness
-
disability prevention
-
general management and interventions in communities
-
medical rehabilitation
-
assessment of pathology.
A consultation workshop took place in Windhoek at the
National Training Health Centre of the Ministry of Health and Social Services
from the 31st of October to the 4th of November 2005. 30 people attended, mainly
medical rehabilitation workers and social workers from 13 regions in Namibia.
As a result of this workshop, corrections, amendments and
additions to the draft manual were agreed. Machteld and Anita then lead the
process of revision and the final draft was due for completion in April 2006.
The manual then needs to be approved by an internal commission of the Ministry
of Health before publication.
IFMH receives regular updates on the
progress of the project which will be reported in future issues of Inform. There
is also more information about the project on the IFMH website:
http://www.ifmh.org.uk/VSO.html
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