Sporting for Cerebral Palsy children

Various companies, organisations and individuals came together at Malawi College of Medicine recently for a special sports day organised by Wumi Wumo Foundation to raise awareness of cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy, a condition that affects the part of the brain that controls muscle movements, affects a lot of children in the country as a result of premature births and other maternal conditions.

Wumi Wumo is a local charity organisation that offers rehabilitation and physiotherapy services to children with the condition.

Apart from raising awareness, the sports day was also organised to raise funds for the ability centre that Wumi Wumo Fondation intends to build in Chiradzulu next year.

The organisation currently conducts its rehabilitation sessions at Mpemba Health Centre in Blantyre every Saturday and also provides nutrition supplements to children with the condition.

“The main objective was to raise awareness of the condition among Malawians so, they know what cerebral palsy is, how it affects the children and their families; and to raise funds for an ability centre that we intend to build.

“We plan to open an ability centre in Chiradzulu. So, we hope that the people we are going into partnerships with will give us a go ahead. We submitted a proposal and we are 90 percent sure we will open this rehabilitation centre. In addition, we wanted people to interact on a social level,” said the founder of Wumi Wumo Foundation, Marriam Mwalwenje-Lally.

She thanked all people who came to support the cause.

“We know that people have a lot of commitments, but we are grateful they managed to come and play for cerebral palsy. We hope to do this yearly. We can all play a part in raising awareness for cerebral palsy,” she said.

This is the second fundraiser organised by the foundation after the mountain hike at Sapitwa in April.

Apart from the physiotherapy services offered for the children at Mpemba Health centre, Wumi Wumo also empowers women, especially mothers of children with cerebral palsy.

They are equipped with entrepreneurship skills to start their own businesses. They have also been organised into a village savings and loans (VSL) group to save money and borrow for their small scale businesses.