Children with Disabilities in Tanzania
The Challenge
Tanzania has a population of close to 50 million people, with over 21 million under age 15 years. The World Health Organization projects 7-10% of African children are disabled, including over 1.5 million children in Tanzania. Many live in rural areas where appropriate medical care is unattainable and educational opportunities barely exist. Under-5 mortality for children with disabilities approaches 50%. Isolation and neglect is common.
In Tanzania, as in many African countries, children with disabilities continue to be considered cursed and may be hidden away for life to avoid family shame. They are often denied basic human rights. Appropriate medical care is rare. Access to education is denied simply due to the existence of a physical abnormality. Community exclusion is standard, originating from cultural beliefs and attitudes that are slow to change. Abandoning a mother whose child has any developmental abnormality is accepted, leading to abject poverty and few viable options.
Opportunity and hope changes lives.
What Do We Do?
We provide medical care, community programs, and education to the most marginalized children in Africa.
We network with other care providers, educators and advocates across Tanzania to improve access to local disability services for children and to increase community inclusivity.
We partner with people around Tanzania and across the world striving for improved awareness, human rights, and equal opportunities for children with disabilities.
We raise funds to support surgical procedures, healthcare, mobility aids, and scholarships so more children will have a chance to be healthy and go to school.
Why Do We Do It?
Our mission is to know God and make Him known.
We live the unconditional love of God that is offered equally to all people, not limited by human abilities or disabilities.
We believe the marginalization and misery experienced by children with disabilities is incompatible with God’s love as we know it and we are called not just to care but to act.
Wezesha Kupaa is our response.
Our Current Projects
2020 and forward
Empowering children with medical care, education access, and community support
- Increased medical and social outreach to remote villages where children with disabilities remain hidden and without opportunities.
- Expansion of DaySpring Academy to include secondary school. Opening planned for January 2024.
- Physiotherapy Annex is expanding to provide a Special Needs classroom for children who need more assistance than is available in the inclusive preschool setting is in early planning stages.
- Parents group for Community Based Rehab program has begun, with plans to bring services, awareness, and opportunities into more rural villages.
- The Home of Hope provides a safe and supportive community for mothers and children - along with food, shelter, and transportation to and from appointments at our partner referral hospitals in Dar es Salaam.
Our Early Progress
Our first decade: 2009-2019
Finding children, providing options, generating hope.
- Expanded clinical services at our new Diagnostic Center support better health and improved medical care for children with disabilities.
- Parent workshops, social outreach programs and local partnerships grew awareness and support for children in the surrounding region.
- Adding ramps, accessible toilets, and additional support staff made Dayspring Preschool and Primary School an inclusive space where children with a range of abilities and disabilities learn alongside each other.
- The House of Hope Residence Facility is built to provide food, shelter and transportation to mothers and children when specialty surgical care is required at our partner referral hospitals in Dar es Salaam.
- Locally available physical therapy improves motor development and social independence.