The staff and client of UIVPIC made a technical visit to SADJOCAH. According to the founder of UIVPIC, the visit was to assess the facilities put in place to effectively manage the vulnerable people in the communities. After a tour of these facilities, the team was very impressed with the infrastructure in place. During our tour in the centre, we were given background information on SADJOCAH as follows.
BACKGROUND
The Saint Joseph’s Children and Adult Home, SAJOCAH, is a rehabilitation project of the Tertiary Sisters of Saint Francis. SAJOCAH is situated in Mambu-Bafut, a village in Mezam Division of the North West Region, Republic of Cameroon. It is located about 20 Km from Bamenda the Reginal headquarters.
The Franciscan Sisters started the Saint Joseph’s Children and Adult Home, SAJOCAH in 1976 as a social centre to provide temporary residence and care for people in need. Such people included physically and mentally impaired persons, malnourished children, orphan babies, single mothers who had been chased away from their homes and abandoned old persons. In 1981, the centre started a school for the blind to meet up with the education and rehabilitation of the increasing numbers of blind children who were knocking at the doors of the centre. The centre has also within the years drifted her focus from a purely social centre; it has been transformed to a comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation centre.
SERVICES OFFERED
Today SAJOCAH is more involved in the provision of comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation services for persons with physical disabilities and the blind through the following departments:
Physiotherapy department:
It provides treatment and long-term rehabilitation to persons with physical disabilities
Orthopaedic department:
It Collaborates with the physiotherapy department to produce and provide the necessary prosthesis, calipers and other appliances prescribed for the patients.
A resource centre for the blind:
The resource centre for the blind provides education and rehabilitation services for young blind children and also supports the education of blind children in regular schools.
A Carpentry workshop
The workshop produces crutches and furniture for the centre
Vocational training handicraft department
It provides training in shoemaking/repair, knitting, sewing, cane work and embroidery.
Community-based rehabilitation
This ensures the follow-up of discharged patients in the community and also does identification and referral of persons with disabilities.
With UIVPIC visit to the centre, it created a new form of awareness in the mine of the founder and the staff. This visit created a new threat hole for the program. And gave us a new area of intervention.