Destiny Foundation – Defo

Destiny Foundation (DEFO) is one of the indigenous social Organizations in Arusha, Tanzania. The association was established in 2017 with an aim of improving the standard of children living with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and those living with Cerebral Palsy in Arusha and other parts of Tanzania. Since its establishment Destiny Foundation has carried out a lot of several activities in the center especially speech therapy, Physiotherapy, Basic learning, Basic survival activities, nutritional support, health advise, capacity building and other sectors.

Autism is a disorder of brain development that affects one percent of children. Its social impact is overwhelming. In Autism, the brain is unable to process sensory information normally. As a result, these children are incapable to respond effectively to stimulation and initiate social behavior towards family, friends, and peers. There is no effective medication for Autism.

Cerebral Palsy is the result of immature brain injury or a brain malformation, Cerebral Palsy is actually caused by brain injury or abnormal development of the brain that occurs while a child’s brain is still developing – before birth, during birth, or immediately after birth. Cerebral Palsy affects body movement, muscle control, posture and balance. It can also impact fine motor skills, gross motor skills and oral motor function.

The economic burden of this disease to affected families and indirectly to society is unbearable. That is why the Destiny Foundation Program has decided to come out with the new methodologies to bring the relief to children born with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and those living with Cerebral Palsy in Arusha and other parts of Tanzania.

The context for this project is one where children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and those living with Cerebral Palsy have been neglected and underrated in the society. In fact, Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a little-known disability within the disabled sector in Tanzania due to the negative perception and lack of interest towards it. The anticipated impact of the Destiny Foundation project is that it will address fundamental support for the children living with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and those living with Cerebral Palsy through identifying them through regular assessments and providing needs-based services in speech therapy, Physiotherapy, Occupational therapy and various rehabilitation processes; and initiate progression to promote the social inclusion of children living with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and those living with Cerebral Palsy.

Depending on the level of severeness of Autism and Cerebral Palsy after full rehabilitation, the level of recovery will also differ. We expect some of children to recover to the extent of performing economic activities that can enable them to partially take care of themselves and those with severeness to recover to the extent of at least to take care of themselves though they cannot performing any economic activities . In both care the issue of care-takers will highly be minimized, so that other people in families affected by problem of Autism and Cerebral Palsy will engage in productive activities

Goals and Objectives:

• Enhance the capacity of disabled persons within the communities to improve their socio economic condition and ensure their Human Rights are sensitized.
• Enhancing the potentiality of individual by providing quality full rehabilitation services
• Capacity building of family and communities to take care of their children within the society
• Socio economically rehabilitate involving the community program
• Promoting opportunity, participation and ensure the rights of the marginalized are sensitized in various communities/society

Action plan

• Building a special center with a provision as complete as possible for Autism and Cerebral Palsy children and their caretakers and recruit eligible staff center.
• Provide transformative workshops in the village through outreach programs
• Provide capacity building to staff in order to help them understand how to handle children with malformation
• Equip the families of Autistic children with the knowledge and skills to provide targeted care for children and provide means by which the children can develop a level of independence;’ relevant to their needs.
• Advocacy and networking for the rights of Autistic children
• Advocacy and networking for the rights of Cerebral Palsy
• Facilitate networking with other working social needs providers in the area, such as Government, schools, clinics and homes
• Assessment and determination number of children with disabilities in the communities.
• Create awareness on the magnitude of Autism and Cerebral Palsy
• Problems in the community and provide valuable
• Information to other stake holders such as Government, private sectors, Religions institutions and other NGOs

Mission and Vision:

• The mission of Destiny Foundation is to create meaningful opportunities for social and economic development of the marginalized community so that the gain dignity, equity and self-confidence in life and the world around them.
• Destiny Foundation working with deprived and undermined community to uphold dignity, equity and self-confidence in the society.