Historically, Symbiosis Bangladesh had employed a disability advocate who assisted the staff to improve work practices and programs to become more disability inclusive. A small assistive device distribution program was also initiated at that time.
However, Symbiosis Bangladesh has not employed a specific disability advocate for some time and their capacity to build on this initial work has been limited. But with renewed focus and funding an opportunity arose to support an expanded team of Physios to now operate.
We got the opportunity to hear from team member Suzie, one of our International volunteers on the team about what’s happening right now.
Who is on the team and what are your backgrounds?
The team specifically focusing on the needs of people with disabilities are myself (Suzie), Lubna and Ryan. We are all Physiotherapists, two of us trained in Australia and Lubna in Bangladesh.
Suzie (right, pictured above) – has three decades of experience working primarily with children in Australia
Lubna (left, pictured above) – has a few years experience in Bangladesh and she is currently completing her Masters in Disability and Rehabilitation.
Ryan – brings experience working with adults in Australia
This is the first time that Symbiosis Bangladesh has employed a local Physiotherapist. The hope for the future is to employ another three community health workers to work in their communities to deliver an early intervention program.
Where are you working and who are you primarily working with?
The new work, which is presently titled ‘Compassionate Connections” here in Bangladesh and will aim to establish a community based early detection and early intervention program for children with cerebral palsy who live in the Mymensingh district.
Access to disability assessment and rehabilitation is very scarce in these project areas and many people’s livelihoods are vulnerable. It is our aim for key informants in the community to identify children and mothers with certain risk factors which predispose the child to having cerebral palsy.
Our team will conduct screening and assessments over a few months and then we will be able to decide if they are at risk of having cerebral palsy (and would benefit from a home based early intervention service ) or if they are developing typically. This early intervention program has been designed by the researchers from the University of Queensland and is also used to support our first nations families in Australia as well as other countries in South Asia.
As you travel and meet people, what are you seeking to understand about their lives/health conditions?
Now that Symbiosis Bangladesh has Lubna as a local Physiotherapist I am becoming more confident that the conversations we are having together with people who may benefit from our disability support programs are more authentic and informative.
We are always trying to understand what they see as priorities for change and how they think this could be achieved in the places where they live.
Have you been able to provide assistance to them? If so, what does this look like?
Since I have started, I have reviewed the existing assistive device program to ensure that the right devices are being given to the people in our project areas who will benefit from them the most.
We have conducted training for the staff in two project areas, so that they can identify suitable people and begin to choose together which assistive device they are most likely to need.
See the photo of Lubna training with a megaphone (below) as the rain was so loud on the tin roof! We are also refining a curriculum for our field workers to use as they speak with the community members about disability issues in general. In the coming months we will begin to field test our resources which we will use for the early identification of infants at risk of cerebral palsy.
What are your hopes for building support to people with disabilities with Symbiosis?
Our big picture hope is that every Symbiosis Bangladesh project area has people with disability or impacted by disability participating in their programs.
We also have a unique opportunity to implement a world leading program to our beneficiaries living in the northern parts of Bangladesh. We have raised the money for the first year only so we would love for interested people and workplaces to contribute to the ongoing implementation of this trial.
We would also welcome contact from any allied health students or practitioners who are interested to visit with us in the coming years and see how community based rehabilitation can be implemented in places like rural Bangladesh.