The Addis Guzo Center is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, a metropolis with about five million inhabitants. The central goal of our assistive device supply is to ensure and improve the mobility of people with impairments. We are convinced that the ability to get around is a basic prerequisite for:
° Independence
° Access to education
° Participation in society
° Social and professional integration
Addis Guzo, with its wide range of products and repair service, is one of the most important contact points for people with impairments in Addis Ababa. Every year, we deliver around 700 individually adapted wheelchairs. In addition to our commitment in Addis Ababa, we serve five other cities in the Oromo region. These include Adama, Fij, Bischoftu, Ambo and Sabeta. Seven wheelchair mechanics work in the wheelchair workshop in Addis Ababa. At the beginning of their work at Addis Guzo, they complete a basic training as wheelchair mechanics, a profession unknown in Ethiopia. Through further training by experts from abroad, they are continuously broadening and deepening their expertise and are now in a position to pass on their knowledge and train other colleagues.
Professional fitting of wheelchairs helps to prevent subsequent physical damage, relieves the burden on relatives and caregivers, and thus improves the quality of life for all concerned. The professional fitting of wheelchairs is a novelty in a country like Ethiopia, where suitable aids are rare and the profession of rehab technician is largely unknown. After a careful assessment, our wheelchair mechanics select suitable wheelchairs from a wide range of different models, which are modified or additionally equipped according to the individual needs of the beneficiaries.
The repair service of our workshop offers maintenance for almost all wheelchair models. Our partner organization rollaid regularly supplies all the necessary spare parts. Thanks to this service the delivered wheelchairs remain in use much longer. Every year we carry out about 3000 repairs. Thanks to this service, the delivered aids remain in use much longer.
Our partner organization rollaid (Interlaken/Switzerland) collects wheelchairs and additional aids such as rollators, walkers, crutches, toilet chairs, etc., which cannot be reused in Switzerland. These are reconditioned as part of a program for the social and professional integration of young people and young adults, then loaded into containers and shipped to Ethiopia.
Aids that cannot be repaired are dismantled into their individual parts and fill the spare parts stores in Addis Ababa. In very rare cases we purchase new spare parts (for example flat tires). A large part of the donated mobility aids comes from the Swiss Disability Insurance (IV) aid depots, which are managed by the Swiss Working Group for Aids for the Disabled and Aged (SAHB). Other suppliers are specialized stores in the field of rehabilitation technology, institutions for elderly and disabled people as well as many private persons. The material is supplied by rollaid to Addis Guzo free of charge.
The family-centered early intervention program is offered to families with infants and toddlers with multiple disabilities. With the active involvement of the entire family, we develop an individualized therapy program for each child and guide caregivers to provide the best possible support for their child’s development.
The multidisciplinary therapy program includes:
° Physical Therapy
° Functional communication and adaptive play
° Occupational therapy and sensorimotor stimulation
° Development and monitoring of an individual therapy program for home use
° Training workshops on topics such as eating and swallowing training, pressure sore prevention, first aid, holding, carrying and positioning children with multiple disabilities
Our rehabilitation team receives training developed with foreign experts in real time, multidisciplinary, and always adapted to the latest knowledge and local conditions.
We offer individual physiotherapeutic treatment to children who cannot be included in our early intervention program due to their age or the nature of their impairment, as well as to adolescents and adults. A wide range of training equipment and aids are available in our well-equipped facilities.
In November 2019, we built the first barrier-free playground in Ethiopia together with the Kukuk Kultur association. It was built under therapeutic, educational and ecological aspects almost exclusively from local natural materials. Outdoor play provides the children in the rehabilitation program with a wealth of new sensory and movement experiences. In the future, we will also invite children from the neighborhood to our playground, thus promoting encounters between children with and without disabilities.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is critical in early intervention and physical therapy. Our wheelchair mechanics and the rehab team work closely together in the provision of aids. It is not only the children who benefit from this. The teams also expand and deepen their professional competencies and skills through the exchange.
For mobility impaired people in Ethiopia it is almost impossible to get an education, find a job or run a business. In the last eight years, we have trained about 80 people with disabilities in various trades. Of these, two groups have started their own businesses, but with moderate success because the circumstances of life for people with impairments make sustainability and growth difficult. Based on this experience, we continue to offer eleven women from three different craft groups (Hayadolls, Sefisisters, and Chuchura) our accessible workshops, transportation, and coaching in all aspects of entrepreneurship after their training. They were trained with us over several years in doll making, tailoring and crochet. Under the Addis Guzo umbrella, they have now joined together to form the Bottlebrush Craft Center cooperative.
Only in this way is it possible for them to run their business successfully and thus secure a regular income. Today they sell their high quality products at handicraft markets, bazaars or directly on our project site. One of these groups is now training other women with disabilities.
Life skills make a crucial contribution to prevention, health promotion and personality development. They enable people to cope independently and successfully with the demands and difficulties of everyday life. Many of our beneficiaries, due to lack of schooling and years of isolation, lack basic experiences and information that can help them. Our skills training is aimed at the families and caregivers from the rehabilitation program, the women of the Bottlebrush Craft Center and the members of our sports and dance groups. Under the aspect of helping people to help themselves, we offer workshops in which topics of daily life such as health issues, gender issues, women’s issues, victim prevention and child protection are dealt with.
Shortly after the opening of the wheelchair workshop, we built a sports court for wheelchair basketball in 2013. Since then, pure joie de vivre, energy and team spirit have enriched everyday life in Addis Guzo. The sport is intended to strengthen the participants physically and mentally so that they can better cope with the tasks of everyday life. In close cooperation with the ICRC, we founded two wheelchair basketball teams with about twenty male and fifteen female participants in the meantime. Our two teams participate regularly and very successfully in competitions and have been among the best in the country for years. Weekly practices are led by a team of professional coaches, with and without impairments.
In 2018, the Addis-Guzo dance group #Movement is life was founded. We deliberately chose Contemporary Dance as our dance form. It encourages physical and emotional expression and allows for personal freedom in movement and creativity. Participants experience a variety of dance expressions that result from the individual interplay of body and personality. Physical limitations fade into the background. For many participants this is an unprecedented experience. Two dance groups (twelve beginners and seven advanced dancers) train twice a week in our dance studio and are taught by professional dance trainers, with and without disabilities. Through dance performances, we promote social awareness and recognition of people with disabilities and thus make an important contribution on the long road to inclusion.
Is a Swiss non-profit organization working with and for people living with disabilities in Ethiopia.
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