Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD)
The problem
Children with disabilities in Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia often went unnoticed in their early years. Families lacked the right information to support them at home. Community-based rehabilitation reached older children well, but it rarely reached the very young kids aged 0-8 years.
Many parents kept children with disabilities indoors instead of sending them to school. No shared manual yet existed to guide facilitators, and no working groups linked families to local health and education services in their villages, which sometimes led to worse conditions in later childhood.
The solution
The project linked two things that work well together: community-based rehabilitation and inclusive early childhood education. The aim was simple. Reach children with disabilities early, support them at home, and help them join a pre-school alongside other children.
I managed the work through SAFOD’s national affiliates: LNFOD in Lesotho, FAMOD in Mozambique, and ZAFOD in Zambia. Together, we trained community members, set up local working groups, and guided families from identification through to enrolment.
What my team and I achieved
Early identification
Facilitators held sensitisation sessions with parents, chiefs, health staff and CBR volunteers to spot signs of disability early.
Caregiver training
ffiliates trained parents and caregivers to support their children’s development at home, with guidance from occupational therapists.
School enrolment
Children who needed therapy first learned to sit, walk or speak, then joined ECDE centres and pre-schools.
Community advocacy
Working groups in each village pushed for better early intervention services and referred children to the right support.
Training the facilitators
In April 2016, SAFOD held a training of trainers workshop in Johannesburg for facilitators from Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia.
Reaching communities
In Mozambique alone, FAMOD held 54 meetings across 19 villages in Machava district to identify children with disabilities.
The ECDE and disability manual
SAFOD produced a manual and leaflets that explain the link between community-based rehabilitation and inclusive early years support.
