The following is an excerpt from a podcast episode titled “Casamance: the community committed to the health of children with disabilities,” which can be found on Radio France Internationale (RFI). The podcast details Special Olympics Senegal’s ongoing efforts to support children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Casamance. The region faces significant health challenges due to limited access to healthcare facilities, lack of trained healthcare workers, economic challenges, and stigma surrounding individuals with IDD.
While the WHO estimates that people with disabilities are more exposed to the risk of chronic diseases (asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases), access to health facilities for these populations is complex, due to accessibility, training of health care workers, economic imperatives and stigma and beliefs that weigh on people with disabilities. (Broadcast relocated to Casamance).The associative world is mobilizing to raise awareness and take concrete action, by proposing initiatives and campaigns dedicated to and adapted to disability issues. The Priorité Santé team will report in Casamance on the actions of the Special Olympics Senegal association, which supports families through sports, but also socio-educational and medical initiatives.Aissatou Diedhiou, Special Olympics Senegal Sub-Program of Ziguinchor in SenegalProf. Lamine Thiam, lecturer and researcher at the Assane Seck University of Ziguinchor. Associate Professor, specialist in pediatric neurology. Head of the Paediatrics Department of the Peace Hospital of Ziguinchor. Former intern in Senegalese hospitalsChérif Niassy, teacher and father of Nfally, a young athlete.Program produced in partnership with the French Muskoka Fund, which works to improve the health and well-being of women, newborns, children and adolescents by strengthening health systems by mobilizing the complementary expertise of four United Nations agencies: WHO, UN Women, UNFPA and UNICEF. The French Muskoka Fund operates in nine countries in West and Central Africa.
