In Africa, the affliction of disabilities forces thousands of children to live in conditions of marginality. Being a disabled child means, in most cases, not having the possibility of accessing medical services and being condemned to a future of abandonment because their condition is still considered a stigma for the family and the village. It is in this context that CUAMM, during a technical assistance mission in Ivory Coast, met Sister Gwladys, who runs The Rehabilitation Centre of Mother Teresa Verzeri since 2015. The center is the point of reference for rehabilitation in the Eastern Ivory Coast for the treatment of children with severe psychomotor disorders.
“One of the main challenges is the strong stigma around disability and psychomotor disorders. Indeed, we act in a cultural context in which these conditions are seen as a major problem for which children are often even sentenced to death by their own families and mothers abandoned by their communities. To tackle these cultural beliefs I try as much as possible to do awareness-raising work regarding these diseases by periodically going to villages, churches, and mosques and talking in the local radio stations, spreading my work number so that those in need can contact me”. Sister Gwladys – Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The center is equipped with rehabilitation machines such as exercise bikes, crutches, parallel bars, wheelchairs, braces, and muscle relaxant electrodes, mostly donated to the nun by privates.
“A second major challenge we face is definitively the lack of personnel, only one assistant and I – I am a physiotherapist – run indeed the center. Furthermore, the nearby hospital lacks a qualified orthopedic surgeon who can conduct for instance corrective surgeries for children in need. At the center we offer rehabilitation services, however many of our patients need indeed the surgery”.
The facility works primarily on an outpatient basis with weekly appointments scheduled directly with the patient. But in case of difficult socio-cultural and family backgrounds or in case of patients who come from faraway villages, the facility also offers rooms where they can stay. Adults stay for a maximum of 3 months and kids with their mothers are admitted for a maximum of 6 months. The center tries to balance the cost of the surgery while keeping rehabilitation costs very low. Families often cannot pay for all expenses so the center often works for free or accepts payments with food and maintenance work that patients can offer.
“Sometimes we host at the center abandoned children and/or mothers but we do not have proper accommodation spaces, there are no mosquito nets and bed lines and often there is not enough food and water. Our resources are very limited but we still do our best to help these children, also hoping to show their mothers and families that the situation can improve and it is possible to find a way to cope with these conditions.”
