MAITS is an international disability charity working alongside local professionals and caregivers in low-resource countries to help them meet the health, development and educational needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities. Our mission is to improve the lives of some of the world’s poorest children living with disabilities, through better access to therapeutic and education support.
Message by the Chairperson, “MAITS was established in 2008 and since then our team has provided training to 6952 individuals in over 23 countries benefitting over 1,350,000 children with disabilities and their families. (MAITS Annual Report 2020-21)
Our flagship Community Health Worker (CHW) Empowerment training targets hard-to-reach families who have limited access to specialist therapists and therapy centres, and who rely on the skill and dedication of community workers to enhance the lives of their children with disabilities and their families and communities. This grassroot training enables timely specialist referrals to be made and enables the provision of targeted home support to promote children’s development, health and wellbeing, using MAITS expertly designed training packages and tools. The programme is successfully running in 5 countries and our resource package has been recommended by A.I.F.I Italian Association of Physiotherapy (Training Packages)
We are delighted to partner with the CareTech Foundation to deliver MAITS lifechanging CHW Empowerment Programme in Pakistan and Bangladesh. On behalf of the Board, I would like to extend a heartfelt ‘thank you!’ to the Foundation, for sharing our commitment to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people within society.”
Meheen Rangoonwala
Message by CareTech Foundation, CEO, Jonathan Freeman MBE:
“We are delighted to partner with MAITS to deliver their impressive CHW Empowerment Programme. With support from the Foundation, this training will reach families who have limited access to therapists and help to enhance the lives of children with disabilities. We are confident that this programme will have a huge impact and reach some of the most vulnerable people in Pakistan and Bangladesh.”
In 2021, Farah, who runs a special school in Karachi, received our training. Farah shared that “After receiving MAITS training, I learnt a lot about seating and positioning of children with Cerebral Palsy and in return I supported a 13-year-old girl who is a severe case of CP. The girl is now comfortable to sit in her wheelchair and carry out several activities that wasn’t possible before.”
With the support from the Foundation, MAITS has been able to extend our training programme in Pakistan and India. Here is a glimpse of our current training at Al-Umeed Rehabilitation Association, Karachi, where we trained 8 therapists and 32 Community Health Workers who will benefit over 250 children in the first year of receiving training.
We are also producing FREE to ACCESS video resources, which will provide basic guidance to parents and caregivers of children with special needs. A sample video can be viewed here which will be a part of the series when the resource is released to the general public.
Trainer Spotlight: Shabnam Rangwala is a paediatric occupational therapist in India. She is our lead trainer on the programme.
“MAITS came into my life at a time when I was exploring avenues to do more and give back to the field that I had been working with for over 25 years. Since then, MAITS has offered ongoing support for my work and helped me to support families of children in low-resource settings,” explained Shabnam about her experience with MAITS.
Shabnam believes in the saying that “helping others is helping yourself” when she faces any crossroads in life.
