Global Rehabilitation
Trustees annual report for year ended March 2021
Name: Global Rehabilitation
Date of constitution: 22/06/2018
Objectives: The relief of need for adults and children with temporary or permanent physical and complex disabilities in low- and middle-income countries by the promotion of better rehabilitation services, in particular but not exclusively by sharing of professional skills, teaching, training, advocacy and undertaking research and facilitating links for achieving the same with other reputed organisations in developing countries.
The charity trustees are as follows:
Dr. Simone Doctors
Dr. Anne Chamberlain
Dr. Ramaswamy Pankajam Hariharan
Dr. Rory O’Connor
Dr. Stephen Halpin
Dr. Martin Schweiger
Treasurer
Mr. Sankar Raj Kuniyur Nallaperumal
The organisation carries out its purposes by,
-Facilitating volunteer visits to Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) mainly by health professionals working mainly in the UK, financially supporting their expenses, training and preparing them to deliver contextually appropriate education. In the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the support and professional development has moved online.
-Supporting (including financially) health professional in LMICs to improve their skills through formal and informal training in their own or other countries, and by other means such as online teaching
-Empowering and equipping rehabilitation professionals in LMICs to enable them to train others aiming to sustain effective rehabilitation services within the health systems.
-Working in partnership with colleagues in LMICs, informing health policy decision makers in those countries regarding the importance of rehabilitation to the participation of disabled people in society
-Supporting (including financially) research related to rehabilitation in LMICs to increase the evidence base for their practice
Trustees have a long history of working in Madagascar, and expect to continue this partnership initially, and may involve other LMICs in the future.
There are no paid employees in the charity and all trustees, and the treasurer are volunteers.
The trustees meet every other month to plan activities and training and deal with administrative issues as needed. Every alternate month, there is a wider meeting of trustees and members to discuss and plan activities and training. The charity will holds an AGM towards the end of the year.
Activities in the year 2020
We had been requested by the Madagascar Ministry of Health to return in late 2020 to begin a second mid-level diploma course for doctors without specialist training who are now attempting to run rehabilitation departments in the regions. We were also to help the physiotherapists in their teams and perhaps the first occupational therapists in the country, who are trained but not employed, due to lack of funds. The training provided by Global Rehabilitation is estimated to cost some £12,000 per year over two years. This is excellent value for money, since the total cost of training one person is only £1,000 (or £200 for each 2-week training visit or just £18 per day). This is possible because volunteer trainers, who are doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists working in the UK, prepare the teaching in their own time before they travel and live in simple accommodation when in Madagascar. However due to the ongoing pandemic the training had to be put on hold.
Due to the Covid pandemic, Global Rehabilitation’s support to rehabilitation doctors in Madagascar has had to move online and we are exploring new ways of supporting our Malagasy colleagues using internetand phone-based technologies. The charity was unable to carry out any of the proposed plans for fund raising events due to the pandemic. However, donations have continued to be received.
We are all aware of how much more dependent we are on the internet since the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, and have got used to holding meetings, attending family reunions, and learning online. But imagine the challenges of being a doctor – not to mention a doctor undertaking further training and professional development, attending professional meetings, etc., – without a reliable internet connection. This is the situation of many of our Malagasy colleagues and of the cohort of doctors who will study with us for the second University Diploma. We at Global Rehabilitation are aware how important a sufficiently fast and reliable internet connection is to our partners, and took the decision to provide them with this vital tool. In Madagascar most people have expensive pay-as-you-go packages; paying up-front is much cheaper but beyond the reach of most of our doctor and physiotherapist colleagues. The cost of providing a good package for one household is £7.50 for 3 months; £15.00 for 6 months; £22.50 for 9 months; £27.50 for 12 months. We have decided to provide financial support our colleagues in Madagascar to get uninterrupted internet access for one year, then to review to assess whether this support achieved its objectives. We will be submitting financial details of this along with the returns next year.
Please find below the financial report of the charity for the financial year 2020-21
Statement of Financial Position
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Receipts
Donations 5,035.57
Fundraising 978.83
Grants 0.00
Other 2,811.00
8,825.40
Payments
Salaries 0.00
Fundraising 0.00
Travel 0.00
Training 0.00
Admin. 180.00
Other 1,436.84
1,616.84
Surplus/
(Deficit) 7,208.56
Fixed Assets 0.00
Opening Funds 13,964.7
8
Closing Funds 21,173.3
4
Cash at Bank as 21,173.3
of 31 [st] March 4
2021
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Proposed activities for 2021 – 2022:
The charity continues to work with the team there to plan and develop a second University Diploma in Rehabilitation Medicine. Discussions are ongoing with the Madagascar colleagues and the university of Antananarivo to formulate a curriculum to run the second diploma programme in Rehabilitation medicine. This time it will be delivered jointly by trainers from Yorkshire and by the Malagasy team, many of whom are graduates of the first diploma and, as the first cohort of Malagasy rehabilitation doctors, have gone on to form a dynamic association of rehabilitation medicine (AMPR-Mada), conduct research and publish papers. Plans have been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, we hope to begin training in 2022, with the first sessions being conducted remotely, and are investing in producing materials which can be delivered online.