The intent of this fundraiser is to raise funds for a van which will aid in the transportation of disabled children with cerebral palsy and autism to clinics and hospitals.

Greetings from Support Disabled Children Ggaba

The intent of this post is to raise funds for a van which will aid in the transportation of disabled children with cerebral palsy and autism to clinics and hospitals.

Support Disabled Children Ggaba (SDCG), is a nonprofit organization which was founded by Ms Betty Nankabirwa and was incorporated by the Government of Uganda in 2016.The organization focuses on forty (40) disabled children with cerebral palsy, autism and other medical conditions such as a mixture autism and cerebral palsy. www.supportdisabledchildrenug.org

An individual could ask himself, why the organization is helping disabled children while the parents are still alive. Well the challenge is that most Ugandan parents have a negative attitude to children with disabilities, some see disabled children as liabilities, curses and lastly demonic beings which leads to neglect from most parents and also breads behavior which contradicts children rights, such as locking of children in dark places away from sight, and taking them to traditional witch doctors for experiments.

SDCG aims at elevating the disabled children in a way that they are treated as a normal child would be by observing their children rights and also providing them with opportunities of learning, socializing with other children and also better access to medication and treatment for their conditions.

SDCG also looks at changing the parent’s perception of the disabilities their children might have and also providing hope and opportunities for the parents as some come from extreme poverty, now when you mix poverty with a poor perception of some of the above mentioned conditions then the child is left with no choice but exposure to negative circumstances or conditions. SDCG attains this goal by providing guidance and counseling to the parents and also provides trainings in tailoring so that the mothers can learn a skill which can be a source of income.

Challenges

SDCG looks after forty (40) disabled children; with this comes competition for resources such as food, medication and equipment, in a sense that food and medication have to be rationed, equipment have to be shared meaning that at times not all children get to use them when needed. Below are some of the challenges in depth.

Treatment and Medication

Medication and treatment is very expensive for some of the conditions. The organization spends close to two million Uganda shillings (2,000,000/=) which is roughly four hundred pounds (£400).

Transportation

The organization does not have a van to transport children to clinics or hospitals, meaning that the organization has to hire a vehicle each time a child has to be taken to hospital. The vehicle is normally hired at Uganda shillings one hundred fifty thousand (150,000/=) per day, which is about thirty five (£35) pounds. It also has to be fueled at a rate that ranges between sixty five thousand (65,000/=) to seventy thousand Uganda shillings (70,000/=) which is about fifteen pounds (£15).

This seems to be little to some but when the van hire (£35) and transportation (£15) is combined the summation becomes fifty (50) pounds. The activity is normally carried out twenty two days a month which equals to one thousand one hundred pounds (£1,100), which is extremely expensive for the organization as the money is fundraised from different entities and the support is at times not guaranteed.

The solution would be buying a used van for the organization at ten thousand pounds £12,000; this will lessen on the burden of fundraising for transport which is not guaranteed.

In conclusion

We are appealing to anyone who can help us reach our goal of £12,000 to acquire a second hand van. This will help us divert money used to hire vans on a monthly basis to medication and acquisition of equipment and medication.