Support for People With Physical & Learning Disabilities & Mental Health Issues: Delivery & Increasing Capacity

MAITS:
Community Health Worker Empowerment Programme

In July 2021, The CareTech Foundation began a three-year partnership with MAITS to deliver the Community Health Worker Empowerment programme in Pakistan and Bangladesh, which aims to provide capacity building to those working in the disability sector. Children with developmental disabilities struggle to access healthcare and education services; in Bangladesh, only 11% of children with disabilities receive any form of education – and the most significant constraints children face are not their impairments but discrimination and lack of support services.

MAITS believes in community-led developmental support, upskilling the local caregivers at different levels to ensure that the resources develop and stay within the regions. The programme aims to strengthen the network of trained healthcare workers to ensure that every child and family in a low-income setting receives the care they deserve.

So far, MAITS has trained 34 therapists who have trained 144 community health workers and keyworkers in Pakistan and Bangladesh — impacting 700 families with disabled children.

Alongside translating the teaching programme materials into Bangla and is working on completing the Urdu translations, with six training videos in development.