Page 8 - OPTA Access Spring 2019

REHAB IN RWANDA:
AN OPTA MEMBER’S EXPERIENCE
Jessica Burger, PT, DPT –OPTA’s 2017 Outstanding Student Award Recipient
Wild mountain gorillas, showering from a basin, and sleeping under mosquito nets? These are all just typical occurrences in
my life as a physical therapy student living in Rwanda, Africa .
I, Jessica Burger, a 2018 graduate from the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at The Ohio State University and winner of the 2017 OPTA Outstanding Student of the Year, had the privilege of traveling to Rwanda for seven weeks to complete my doctoral work in combination with a global health initiative in which I had been and am currently significantly involved.
The Ubumwe Community Center (UCC) in the Western Province of Rwanda serves a large population of people with disabilities and embraces the motto ‘disability is not inability’ . A plan was drafted for the UCC in 2015 by my colleague and mentor, Cara Whalen- Smith, to begin a community-based rehabilitation program . Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) is an initiative from the World Health Organization to increase rehabilitation services to underserved areas around the globe . I was glad to help adapt the World Health Organization CBR Guidelines to meet the needs of persons served by The Ubumwe Community Center (UCC) . In the Spring of 2018, I was able to travel to Rwanda to co-teach, with
a Rwandan physiotherapist, the adapted materials, certify nine Rwandans to become CBR workers, and successfully launch one of Rwanda’s first ever CBR programs. This program is now providing monthly rehabilitation services and more to 90+ children with disabilities, their families and their communities .
Given the drive and dedication of our colleagues in Rwanda to increase the quality of life for our beneficiaries, all credit goes to them, and glory to God . Our CBR workers travel far into villages to work with children and families who otherwise would receive no help . And the effect is tremendous, as can be heard from one of our beneficiaries.
(top left) Gorilla trekking through the Virunga mountain forest to get up close and personal with the silverbacks.
(middle left) Learning to wash clothes by hand with the Rwandan physiotherapist, Yvonne.
(bottom left) In one of the villages, teaching a group of mothers with children with disabilities the basics of encouraging physical development.
(top right) Using the UCC’s first ever standing frame for a young man with a spinal cord injury.
(bottom right) Traveling over bumpy roads (locals say you are getting a massage) to reach children in
Ryabizige, a distant village.“One time the truck got stuck in the mud, and we had to push it out!”
8 | March 2019 | OPTA