Partnerships
Our Story
March 21st, 2013 by Debbie
Wondering what we’re all about? A bit about Transforming Faces:
KusiRostros Staff Explain the Impact of the CRCs
March 5th, 2013 by DebbieTransforming Faces launched the Community Rehabilitation Centres, which are administered by KusiRostros, in January 2012. Here, the staff explain the impact that the project has made.
The CRCs offer services such as: dentistry, speech therapy, and also counselling sessions, usually with parents.
Ethiopia: Focus on Speech Therapy
February 26th, 2013 by DebbieTransforming Faces is facing the brain drain phenomenon in Ethiopia. One of the current gaps in care is the provision of speech therapy due to a lack of trained professionals.
When the Cleft Lip and Palate and Burn Unit at Yekatit 12 Hospital in Ethiopia was established, with the help of Norwegian aid, speech therapy became a recognized profession in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian plastic surgeons and Ethiopian speech therapists were being trained and the speech therapy training was being done on the job. Later, formal training with a Bachelor degree abroad in South Africa was introduced.
For the bachelor training in South Africa, six Ethiopians enrolled and four graduated. Unfortunately, three of them left the country for different reasons. Currently, there is one trained speech therapist in a country of approximately 80 million people.
In 2011, Partners in Africa in Cleft Training (PACT) and Yekatit 12 trained five assistant speech therapists – three from Ethiopia, one from Ghana and one from Nigeria. This project is coordinated by Seattle children’s Hospital and funded by Transforming Faces.
Currently, the speech therapy service at Yekatit 12 hospital, is co-ordinated by one speech therapist with support from assistant speech therapists. The assistant’s training is limited to cleft patients only, but there are many non-cleft patients who need speech therapy.
Non-communicable diseases have generally received inadequate attention on the global health agenda. A recent study conducted among 18 sub-Saharan African countries, including Ethiopia, found that speech and hearing services are severely under-resourced, understaffed, and equipment is outdated. Patients do not have access to the most basic hearing tests or speech and hearing rehabilitation.[1]
Yekatit 12 currently provides therapy for 50 patients per year. As awareness has grown about the benefits of speech therapy, the demand has increased for this service. It is clear that a local speech therapy training program is necessary to meet the growing demand and to support the development of this new profession in Ethiopia.
On a recent trip to visit Ethiopia, Transforming Faces took part in a stakeholders meeting to discuss a new speech therapy diploma program will be developed using a combination of local and expatriate speech-language therapy professionals.
This program will start as a two-year diploma program, housed within an existing department of Addis Ababa University, with the eventual goal of establishing a full four-year degree program.
Following the meeting, the development of a curriculum for the program, to be housed in the College of Education of Addis Ababa University, began. The project has secured seed funding from the Norwegian government to support two workshops, which will facilitate curriculum development. Transforming Faces is currently funding an Ethiopian Speech Therapist to oversee and organize the curriculum development. The first workshop is slated for March. Stay tuned for more about this exciting new training opportunity!
[1] Fagan, Johan and Jacobs, Marian. Survey of ENT services in Africa: Need for a comprehensive intervention. Global Health Action 2009. Accessed on 24/08/2012 at: http://journals.sfu.ca/coaction/index.php/gha/article/viewFile/1932/2207
Meet Antonella
February 21st, 2013 by DebbieIrma and Antonella live in a poor area of Tucuman, Argentina where there is a lot of drug use, prostitution and violence. Antonella, 18, is one of 7 children, and her mother, Irma, is very active in the community.
As part of a government program, Irma cooks meals for disadvantaged children and teens in the community. She cooks the meals in her home, with volunteer help from teens who were formerly part of the program. Although Irma has 7 children, she says that she cares for 15 children in total.On a recent trip to Argentina, Transforming Faces staff met with Antonella, who received a palate surgery at age 6. She does not have a cleft lip. She did not receive any early rehabilitation and had severe difficulty with her speech. Her teachers could not understand her and she spoke very little. At age 12, she received a second surgery, and then soon after this she discovered the Gavina team.
Our partner, Gavina, serves Tucumán and neighbouring provinces where the most acute poverty levels are found in Argentina.
Antonella has received dental care, speech therapy and counselling from the Gavina team. She said that going to Gavina “is important to me” and she feels that she is part of a bigger family. Gaby, Gavina’s Executive Director and speech therapist, is like a mother to her. When she goes to Gavina, she calls it “my foundation.”
Antonella was held back in school due to her speech difficulties, but she is now beginning night classes in order to obtain her high school diploma. One day she hopes to help other children with cleft.
TF project aims to secure local funding
February 14th, 2013 by DebbieTransforming Faces believes in empowering our partners with the skills, such as fundraising, so that they can secure their own funding and become self-sufficient.
When Fundación Gavina, our project in Argentina, signed a lease agreement at their current location, the owner as well as members of the Tucumán Rotary Club visited.
In 2011, the president of the Tucumán Rotary Club presented a funding proposal to Fundación Gavina for $20,000. This was recently increased to $50,000. The grant allowed them to train their orthodontic professionals, as well as purchase much needed dental, orthodontic and office equipment.
