Compassionate Connections
Ministry in South Asia
Through our partner NGO, Summer and local healthcare workers will work with families to deliver an early detection and early intervention program.
In South Asia, it is estimated that one in every 300 children is born with cerebral palsy (compared with one in every 700 children in Australia). The children in South Asia are often diagnosed several years later than their Australian counterparts, which limits positive developmental outcomes and independence later in life. Additionally, the burden of having a disability in a low middle income country is high, with greater severity of impairments and significant health-related suffering exacerbated by poverty. Many families incur significant debt they cannot repay trying to pay for treatment and give their children a better quality of life.
Our partner NGO in South Asia runs community-based programs for families in South Asia to see better whole of life outcomes, including programs like this one that will focus specifically on developmental health outcomes for children living with disabilities. These programs will be delivered in each family’s home by community health workers, employed through our partner NGO, who will spend several months visiting them and passing on vital knowledge and skills to support their child.
Using her 30 years of experience supporting children and their families through Physiotherapy, Summer will train and encourage the health workers and a local physiotherapist in making compassionate connections with the people in their communities. These health care workers know their community and the children who have identified risks of cerebral palsy or other neurodevelopmental delays.
By supporting this life-changing project, early detection and intervention programs are possible. Children with disabilities in South Asia, and their families, receive compassionate and professional support and children have the opportunity to gain independence, reduce stigma and operate more fully in their communities as they grow and develop into youth and adults.
Committed to reconciliation, Baptist Mission Australia acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and their connection to land, sea and community and all that the creator God gifted to them. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Committed to reconciliation, Baptist Mission Australia acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and their connection to land, sea and community and all that the creator God gifted to them. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
