Community Outreach

We organise outreach by rehabilitation professionals, to ensure access to services such as prosthetic leg fabrication, repairs, maintenance and counselling for people with limb loss who live in harder-to-reach places.

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What are the Challenges?

Individuals in rural or low-income areas face considerable obstacles in accessing rehabilitation services, crucial for achieving mobility and independence.

This discrepancy in access underscores a broader issue of healthcare equity, affecting those with limb differences disproportionately.

The few rehabilitation centres and hospitals with functioning orthopedic workshops are usually in capital cities and urban areas, meaning that those in rural areas must travel sometimes days in order to receive care
The cost of the journey and accommodation throughout the fitting and training process is an added financial burden to the existing cost of the prosthesis itself

What's involved with community outreach

Coordinated treks

Involve meticulously planned journeys by rehabilitation teams to remote areas, delivering essential services and support to communities far from traditional healthcare facilities, ensuring no one is left behind.

Isolated areas

Strategic expeditions by healthcare professionals to isolated areas, aiming to provide crucial rehabilitation services to communities otherwise cut off from adequate healthcare support.

Home visits

In the community, personalised on-site repair services involve professionals visiting individuals' homes to fix and adjust prosthetic devices, ensuring continuous and convenient support.

What STAND is doing

Many rehabilitation centres we work with across sub-Saharan Africa have out reach programs. In the Gambia, STAND is actively addressing the needs of individuals with limb differences through targeted outreach treks designed to ensure equitable access to rehabilitation services:

Our teams undertake planned visits to remote areas every few months, providing specialised rehabilitation services directly to communities that are traditionally underserved.
On-site repair services in the community involve professionals visiting individuals' homes to fix and adjust prosthetic devices, providing continuous and convenient support.
Our peer-counsellors are part of the team that go on the outreach treks, and they also offer counselling and support by telephone so they can stay in touch and support people remotely in between visits.