Malamulele Onward

General information

Malamulele Onward is a non-profit organization that identifies and helps carers and their children with cerebral palsy in some of the most under serviced rural areas of South Africa and Lesotho. The project started began in the Malamulele area of Limpopo Province and rapidly expanded to the rest of South Africa . A group of volunteer health professionals noticed that children severely disabled by cerebral palsy survive, often into adulthood, but they and their families are neglected by the health and education systems. This resulted in children with great potential being compromised while their families struggle on in ignorance of interventions that would ease their own lives and the lives of the affected children.

Children severely disabled by cerebral palsy (CP) and their carers living in the most marginalised areas of Southern Africa are at the heart of Malamulele Onward. Malamulele Onward strives to ensure that children with CP benefit from access to therapy, equipment, basic training and support. However, there is a critical shortage of therapists in the public sector, particularly in rural areas. Specialised skills to help the children and train the carers are mainly available in the bigger health centres and the private health sector. Malamulele Onward has pioneered a model which matches the available skills in the country with the needs of children with cerebral palsy and their carers in under serviced ruralareas.

There are three "vehicles" Malamulele Onward utilizes:

Outreach visits to carefully chosen sites (cerebral palsy clinics at public service hospitals) within South Africa and Lesotho i.e., areas with the greatest need.

Provision of therapy for children with complex needs identified from the outreach visits.

Training, empowerment and capacity-building of caregivers.

Strengthening existing rehabilitation services for children with CP within the chosen sites (on-site and within the community).

Each outreach project involves a number of steps or phases – see the figure below. A site is a public service hospital in a poorly-resourced rural area where there is a rehabilitation service for children with CP. Our aim is not to start a new service but rather to strengthen and grow an existing service.