Manuela Project

A project for children with special needs, the only one of its characteristics in Moyo District and the Ugandan northern region. This is the outcome of a process started in 2016, after the visit of a couple of expatriate voluteers for the Vura Music Project (even prior to the creation of our NGO). In one of the regular visits the couple was doing to the Moyo Babies Home orphanage, the volunteers identified a girl called Manuela with evident signs of intellectual disability.

After some deep analysis together with Moyo District authorities, Babies Home Management and other stakeholders out of Moyo, the decision was taken: A project to help children with special needs would be designed to help Manuela and many others like her.

This project doesn't only aim at improving the situation of those children affected with the various conditions that generate disabilities. It goes much deeper and targets the biggest problem around disabilities, the stigma that comes with them. In Uganda, many communities look at disabilities as a course and a burden, which leads to very nasty scenarios in some extreme occasions. Under Manuela Project, families and communities will understand that these are members of our communities and, with the right input, they can achieve great goals beyond their imagination.

Started in October 2021, this part of Langeti also accommodates the three core values of the holistic initiative:

Synergy

The different families that show up in our premises participate in the activities, joining efforts and creating bonds between them, from village to village, from one family to another.

Integration

The same way our music project integrates the two genders, the different actions will help on the integration of the children with disabilities in their communities.

Empowerment

This project works directly on people with challenges beyond the majority of the society. It will not only provide them with critical technical knowledge in different fields, but also generate a support that will make possible the acquisition of the technical skills.

To make the core values work and generate a real impact, Manuela Project works through two different ways:

Physiotherapy

Starting from newborns, the projects offers physiotherapy to improve the general condition of children in need. This therapy is offered form the Bilinyo Cultural Centre and, despite we offer transport to the venue, it is also delivered home for those families with the biggest mobility challenges.

Currently, these services are also rendered to the general population, to support people with various contidionts that require physiotherapy for improvement.

Occupational Therapy Workshops

Different craft-making workshops are in place, with the aim of putting parents and their children with dissabilities to work together. Even though some of the kids are able of manufacturing top-quality products, the main purpose is to use these activities to improve their shycomotricity and general condition. Parents are involve in production, so that they can share time and occupation with their children and change the way they relate to each other.

Music: Some of the children join the regular students of Vura Music Project, incresing their potential social integration.
Agriculture: We have a small garden of vegetables, on which the children with disabilities can work under the supervision of specialists of Manuela Project and the advise of the professional farmers from our third project (Ruddu Hwe)
Handcraft making: With a dedicated teacher, the beneficiaries and their families learn how to make different crafts that later on are marketed, such as handbags, bracelets, liquid soap and others.

The project is currently supporting more than 100 children within the different ongoing programmes and keeps welcoming more children through referrals from the relevant medical centres in Moyo District, including children coming from Paloirnya refugee settlement coming via Moyo Hospital.

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