The project partnership between the association ARCHEMED-A¨rzte fu¨r Kinder in Not e.V. and the Eritrean civil society organisation NAIDDE, which began in 2013, sets out to provide training courses for multipliers in the diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities and autism. The aim of these courses is to enable children with disabilities and their families to receive needs-based care.
Background:
Estimates suggest that somewhere in the region of 70,000 Eritrean children between the ages of 0 and 14 are affected by moderate to severe disabilities. However, as no official data on the exact number is available, there is a lack of both diagnostic and therapeutic services and reliable statistics to be able to determine the country’s specific aid requirements.
Activities:
Two annual training courses on diagnosing and providing therapy for autism, held over 5-6 days for NAIDDE staff
Two annual electroencephalogram (EEG) training courses with doctors and nurses
Documenting and evaluating the workshop content and outcomes
Impact:
The training sessions are an opportunity for NAIDDE staff to learn how to transfer knowledge and act as multipliers so that, in the long term, highly qualified Eritrean staff are able to hold the training sessions themselves in accordance with the train the trainer principle. The aim is to build up a network of advice centres across the country to give affected children and parents in rural provinces access to care too.