Hi all, an exciting opportunity has come up for a SLT volunteer in Uganda. See message below from Steve in Uganda:
Good afternoon,
My name is Steve Williams and I live in Uganda in East Africa and have done so for just over 10 years. My wife and I had a baby boy about 4 years ago but things didn’t go as smoothly as they could have done. He suffered quite heavily from convulsions for the first 4-14 months of his life and was subsequently diagnosed with epilepsy. After numerous trips to Kenya and the UK and a 9 month stay in the UK for my wife, things seem to have stabilized but, either through the fits themselves or the medication he has to take daily, his development has been quite slow.
At the moment he can walk but his speech is still quite limited. We have worked with various specialists and therapists who have advised and trained us on methods we can use to help improve things and have even built some developmental aids. In this part of the world it’s not easy to find speech/physio/developmental therapists but I thought it would be extremely beneficial to have someone around who has been professionally trained in this field and so about a year ago I partnered with a UK physiotherapist, Fiona Beckerlegge, who now lives here full time to see if we couldn’t improve his development.
It’s been a massive success and Fiona’s input into his life has been immense. Not only has she been able to help my own son but together we have founded an NGO called the ‘Kyaninga Child Development Centre’ (http://www.kyaningacdc.org/) and now offer comprehensive treatment to children living with disabilities across the whole district. Our team has recently grown with occupational therapist, Racheal, joining us a few months ago and bringing vital skills to the centre to further the development of the children who are already visiting us.
The next skill set we are looking to fulfil would be that of a speech therapist and this is why I am writing to you today. What I propose is to offer a 3-6 month placement, based in Fort Portal, Western Uganda, for a speech therapist on a voluntary basis where I would provide food and accommodation with the possibility to extend the placement after review. Furthermore, if we successfully manage to source funds during this time for this position then we would also be able to offer a salary. I also own a safari lodge and a small safari company and would be able to offer them a complimentary safari so that they also get a bit of an Africa experience while they’re here.
If you know of anyone in this field who would be interested I would be most grateful if you could let them know.
The name of the lodge is Kyaninga Lodge (www.kyaningalodge.com), and the town is called Fort Portal.
Best regards,
Steve Williams
Owner Kyaninga Lodge
Fort Portal
+256 772999750
www.kyaningalodge.com
Communication Therapy International 