Strategi

Intro

A plan like this is made to offer comprehensive guidelines in FRDC’s drive to achieving the following two main objectives:

To support children with disabilities and other vulnerable children through rehabilitation, education and psychosocial support with focus on their rights to health and development.

b)    To promote efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of FRDC as an organization with a sound capacity. 

This frame work plan is intended to cover activities in the period 2009 to 2011. It contains the broad guidelines through which planning, resource mobilization, and successful implementation of FRDC activities are streamlined. This will help very much in identifying issues and gaps in the organization’s progress. 

Purpose of this Strategic Plan

• To bring to the forefront coordinated participation by all stakeholders in planning, management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of FRDC interventions in supporting its target groups (children with disabilities and other vulnerable children)

• To establish a benchmark against which progress and impact of FRDC interventions will be measured

• To relate and conform the organization’s activities to development goals and policy guidelines of the government on Civil Society Organizations

• To serve as a tool for resource mobilization and a basis of costing and seeking for support from donor community and development partners

Basic information on Freidis Rehabilitation and Disable Centre (FRDC)

Vision

A Society where all vulnerable children live to their full rights and participate in all areas of Socio- Economic Development

Mission

To ensure all children with disabilities and other vulnerable children in northern Uganda are fully integrated and reintegrated in communities through rehabilitation, Education and psychosocial

Goal

The overall Goal of the Centre is to Support children with disabilities and other Vulnerable Children to regain their livelihood and to work towards their effective, resettlement and integration/re-integration to the community.

Background

At the peak of Lords Resistance Army insurgency in Lango sub-Region, Northern Uganda in 2003 Christopher Jogole and Freidis Persson visited Uganda from Norway. In one of their trips to Omoro sub-county, Moroto county of Lira District, the two met a very horrific situation of Women, Children, older persons and most specifically children with disability who had neither Healthcare services nor community support system in place. It was upon this backdrop that the idea of establishing Freidis Rehabilitation and Disable centre was conceived.

The centre was opened on the 1^st of February 2007 by H.E the President of the Republic of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. By the end of the year, a total of 186 children were rehabilitation, i.e. 78 Children with Disabilities (CWDs), 8 Formerly Abducted Children (FAC) and 100 Street Children. Of the total children received in 2007, 179 children have returned to their homes/families and are being followed up. By close of the year the centre had a total of 53 CWDs undergoing physiotherapy and some awaits corrective surgery

The centre has seven acres of land with nine blocks of buildings; i.e Administration block (5 offices and a board room), Physiotherapy Unit, Health Unit, Main Hall, Kitchen, 2 Dormitories (Boys and Girls), Apartment and the Social Work block. The centre also has got 1 vehicle and a borrowed motor cycle from UNICEF.

By 31^st /12/2008 FRDC had a total of 15 staffs (9 males and 6 Females) both technical and support staffs.

Location

Freidis Rehabilitation & Disable Centre (FRDC) is located in Lira Town, 1km on Lira – Adekokwok - Boroboro road (immediately after Lango Cultural Centre). Lira District is one of the districts in northern Uganda. It is bordered by the Districts of Gulu in the North West, Pader in the North, Amuria in the South East Dokolo in the South and Apac in the west.

Legal status

 FRDC is a fully registered local Non-Governmental Organization with National Board for NGOs and Registry of Companies as a company by guarantee. FRDC is committed to seeing the full rehabilitation, participation, integration and reintegration of Children with Disabilities (CWDs), Formerly Abducted Children (FAC) and Street Children for equalization of opportunities. The Centre intends to achieve this through psychosocial support, physiotherapy and medical rehabilitation of CWDs, FACs and street children in Northern Uganda.

Core Program Areas (CPAs) and Departments

This plan is made with focus on four government priority areas commonly termed as Core Program Areas (CPAs) and these are; health, Education, Psychosocial and socio-economic security. This document also highlights center’s departmental status/capacity and future projections, these departments include: Finance and Administration, Social Work, Physiotherapy and Dispensary/Clinic

CPAs.

All the activities under the four CPAs are intended to offer direct benefit to FRDC primary target beneficiaries in fulfillment of 1^st major objective of supporting children with disabilities and other vulnerable children. These CPAs are systematically handled in this document one by one as follows:

a) Health

 Introduction

Under health FRDC has got a fully established physiotherapy unit with adequate equipments and there is also a medical clinic though with limited drugs and personnel.

Past Review

This core program area has been very vibrant especially physiotherapy unit and it has treated over Four hundred children including out-patients (adults). The senior personnel in this unit loved her work and because of her seniority in the department attracted many patients and in deed it has been a success story to the community in the all region of Northern Uganda since 2007.

Policy issues

• Treatment of children with disabilities and other vulnerable children free of costs
• Forming networks, alliances and coalitions to promote comprehensive health services

Goal

To upgrade FRDC to a hospital status where by children with disabilities and other vulnerable children access adequate health services such physiotherapy, corrective surgery among other medical services

Problems

• Limited personnel
• Inadequate finance to handle referral cases, up keep of children at the centre and retention of enough personnel
• Limited drugs in stock

Objectives

• To have enough qualified medical personnel
• To procure enough drugs and other necessary equipments in FRDC clinic
• To raise community awareness on the services offered at FRDC and its primary targeted beneficiaries
• To source enough funds to meet program support management costs

Strategies

• Open up opportunities for both local and international medical Volunteers and interns at FRDC
• Diversify/strengthen local revenue sources to raise enough funds to meet administrative costs of the centre
• Constant lobbying for funds from donor opportunities
• Network, alliance & coalition

Activities

• Advertising FRDC services through media and its website to attract high profile resourceful volunteers and interns and donor to help in supporting physiotherapy department and equip the Dispensary.  
• Broadening up opportunities for out-patients (adults) who come for the same treatment as children do but at a small cost so that some funds be generated locally on subsidized charges made on them to supplement FRDC revenue.
• Signing memorandum of understanding with willing organizations, institutions, individuals who may wish to form partnership, alliance or coalition with FRDC.  
• Documenting proposals and other lobbying tools and selling to donor community and organizing fund raising functions to source funds that will help in meeting medical bills of children in FRDC referral places.

Monitoring and mentoring Mechanism

• Regular meetings to conduct planning & review lessons leant, challenges, success stories, and way forward.
• Training workshops, conferences and seminars to enhance capacity development of personnel
• Exchange visit programs

c)    Education

Introduction

FRDC has been supporting the majority of children with disabilities and other vulnerable children like formerly abducted children who passed through the centre with short term scholastic materials and school uniforms but, as relative peace is being realized in the region, attention is being diverted towards sustainable support.

The centre has vigorously begun looking for sponsors who can support the education of rehabilitated children who were former war abductees, former street children, children with disabilities among other vulnerable children. Currently there are four children with sponsors who are already schooling. They come back and spend their holidays at the centre because they don’t have homes.

Goal

To promote education of children with disabilities and other vulnerable children

Problems

• Limited funds generated locally by FRDC to support many vulnerable children who are not in position to access basic formal education.
• Difficulties in getting sponsors
• Challenge in provision of sustainable educational support to children

Objectives

• To broaden FRDC revenue base in order to have enough funds for supporting education of vulnerable children.
• To identify & bring on board potential sponsors who can support the education of children at FRDC through out their stages of studies.
• To improvise sustainable approaches of supporting education of vulnerable children identified by FRDC

Strategies

• Diversify and strengthen FRDC local sources of revenue by initiating & carrying out investments that generate income to the organization e.g. farming, offering medical services to adult at subsidized costs, facilitating travel and tours for international visitors and any other viable investments

• Identify potential donors and lobby resources from them including non financial resources.

Activities

• Formation and equipping investment committee that will from time to time assess identify and carry out investments on behalf of the organization.
• Writing letters, proposals and using verbal means to lobby funds from donors to support the education of vulnerable children at the centre.

Monitoring and mentoring mechanism

• Holding periodic meetings with key stakeholders
• Exchange visits by members of investment committee for proper exposure and more learning from similar organizations.
• Participation in conferences, workshops and seminars to enhance the capacity of personnel   

C) Psychosocial support

Introduction

• Psycho-social underlines the dynamic relationship between physiological and social experience where effects of each are continually influencing the other.
• ‘Psycho’ refers to emotions, behavior, thoughts, beliefs, attitude, perceptions and understanding of an individual.
• ‘Social’ refers to a person’s external relationships and to the influence of the environment on his/her wellbeing (family, school, and local community)
• Majority of vulnerable children brought for support at FRDC commonly exhibits psycho-social problems and it has been the responsibility of our trained workers to handle such cases.

Past experience

FRDC has been handling psychosocial cases of children who got traumatized during times of Lord Resistance Rebels (LRA) war in Northern Uganda, children with stigma due to their status of disabilities/deformities and other cases like victims of torture and abuse.

Other cases handled include; child headed households, street children, unsupervised children and child laborers, single, widowed and female headed households, old person headed households, chronically ill head of household/care giver/adult household member, household with persons living with disability and household in hard-to reach areas.

The actual activities that have been taking place at the centre include; registration, provision of basic needs kit (soap, clothes, slippers, mattresses and basin), provision of medical care, provision of food and supplementary feeding, counseling, family tracing, shelter and protection, follow-up community sensitization and skills training

FRDC has also formed Parents Support Groups which are very instrumental in supporting psychosocial program activities especially outside the centre at community level.

Children have also been engaged in sporting activities and this has been very effective for their social, emotional, physical and emotional development

Goal

To strengthen resilience of vulnerable children by fighting stigma, trauma and stereotypes commonly associated with them. 

Problems

• Luck of adequate finance to strengthen responsible department with equipments and in- service development training for personnel.
• Some children whose homes have been traced but never found are now kept as one family at the centre but sometimes the centre runs sort of food stock and other basic items because of luck of money and this has made the centre to constantly accumulate big debts with suppliers.

Objectives

• To provide vulnerable children with quality psychosocial support services
• To provide both short term and long term psychosocial support to children
• To have reasonable fund allocation for psychosocial support activities  

Strategies

• Organizing workshops on child related issues, participation in external conferences, workshops and seminars to enhance capacity of FRDC staffs.
• Organizing exchange visits with organizations that support vulnerable children in similar thematic areas.
• Organizing community outreach activities to conduct mobilization activities such as community meetings, child identification, assessment, trainings sensitization etc 

Activities

• Trainings for key stakeholders
• Conducting participatory planning and implementation of psychosocial support activities
• Conducting community outreaches
• Forming networks with partners
• Formulating documents to lobby for funds and manuals for training & guiding service provision under psychosocial

Monitoring and Mentoring mechanism

• Holding periodic participatory meetings with key stakeholders
• Exchange visits
• Participation in conferences, workshops and seminars to enhance the capacity of personnel
• Support supervision in families, schools & communities
• Data collection, analysis, documentation dissemination of reports to be used for different purposes including planning 

D) Socio-economic security

Introduction

• Under this core program area, the needy households of vulnerable children are supposed to be supported with inputs (resources) to boost their livelihood sources.
• Needy households are identified according to community criteria and following a community consensus assessment and provided with support.
• These include; income support, labour saving an entrepreneurial skills building programs to benefit vulnerable households.
• Savings and savings schemes are also relevant for vulnerable households

Past experience

Plans have been made to begin supporting the target beneficiaries like child headed households, formerly abducted children who have been reunited with the communities and others but this plans have never been implemented because attention had been so inclined on physical rehabilitation, psychosocial support and education for the beginning.

Some four center staffs have been trained relevant skills in Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) and they are soon beginning to train communities in severely war affected zones to enable boost households incomes of that may join the associations.        

Goal

To economically empower vulnerable households through promotion of income generating activities in order to increase household capacity to access basic needs.

Problems

Limited internal revenue base

Insufficient funding

Objectives

• To identify, train and support vulnerable households with start up inputs to help them begin their income generating activities
• To lobby for adequate funds to finance community livelihood initiatives

Strategies

• Use of technical personnel who can effectively plan and guide the implementation of initiatives both at the center and within the community
• Creating linkages with donor community 

Activities

• Community sensitization
• Stakeholders’ trainings
• Resource mobilization
• Formulation of lobbying documents and applying to donor community for funding

Monitoring and mentoring mechanism

• Holding periodic participatory meetings with key stakeholders
• Exchange visits
• Participation in conferences, workshops and seminars to enhance the capacity of personnel
• Field visits/follow up to conduct support supervision.

FRDC DEPARTIMENTAL SWOT ANALYSIS

i) Finance & Administration department

Strength

• There are enough physical structures at the centre
• The centre has got a total of 15 hard working staffs to keep it functional
• The centre enjoys good working relationship with the government and the community as well.
• Cooperation with different departments is good. It receives regular report from departments for analysis and action
• Physiotherapy department is the most vibrant and productive. It generates some funds locally from treatment of out-patients and this money is ploughed back in maintain ace of the equipments and meeting other costs of administration.
• Presence of personnel   

Weakness

• Inadequate funds to meet costs of administration like utility bills, staff salaries and allowances, cost of supplies, repair and maintenance, among others
• Limited number of technical personnel because of inadequate funds to retain them

Opportunities

• Donors’ constant request for grant application from civil society organizations
• Government’s good relations and support for the centre
• Presence of departments that can offer medical services to out-patients at subsidized charge that can generate income to the centre e.g. physiotherapy department and centre dispensary.

Threats

• Political interference from centre enemies
• Delays in donors’ release of funds
• Luck of commitment by some stakeholders

ii) Physiotherapy department

Strength

• The machines & equipments are enough
• The department has got adequate space with enough rooms
• Good working relationship with Lira regional main hospital

Weaknesses

• Limited personnel with adequate skills to operate complicated machines used in physiotherapy department.

Opportunities

• Relationship with the government and some donors can be utilized to support the department
• Availability of medical students on internship and volunteers

Threats

• Death of a senior physiotherapist who was the founder of FRDC who new very well how to operate all the machines in physiotherapy department
• Possibility of robbery and destruction by wrong doers

  iii)  Social work department

Strength

• Availability of qualified personnel
• Availability of computers and stationeries for documentation

Weaknesses

• Inadequate funds to retain enough personnel
• Limited opportunities for staff development trainings

Opportunities

• Network with other organizations in order to share knowledge and experiences
• Invitation for workshops, seminars and conferences that are regularly organized by big network organizations and institutions

Threats

• Resignation by staffs because of less attractive remuneration

vi)  FRDC Dispensary/clinic

Strength

• Presence of dispensary block with enough rooms

Weaknesses

• Drugs are limited and in most cases out of stock
• Well qualified technical personnel are lucking
• Limited medical equipments

Opportunities

• Free drugs can be got from the government or any other donor on agreement terms and conditions for the same purpose of serving the community and vulnerable children
• Medics can be attracted to come for their internship at FRDC dispensary
• Funding opportunities that exist with donor community

Threats

• Inadequate remuneration for staffs

CONCUSSIVE FUTURE FRDC PLANS FOR FRDC

• The centre plans to construct a gym and hydro-therapy swimming pool for the treatment of children with paralysis
• The centre intends to have a fully functional orthopedic workshop. This will enable the centre to provide a comprehensive rehabilitation of children with disabilities as mobility appliances like wheel chairs, tricycles, crutches, calipers and other assistive devices will be produced at the centre.
• We are working out a strategy for strengthening our community based rehabilitation program. This is aimed at providing preventive measures to incidences of disabilities, early management and response to disabilities in children.
• The centre also wishes to establish a vocational training program under the education department to impart skills to children and strengthen its resource base which would in turn enhance sustainability of the centre
• Need for provision of education, income generating activities and livelihood support to children with disabilities and other vulnerable children.
• We also intend to upgrade our medical section into health centre VI status. This process is on-going in collaboration with health department of Lira District Local Government