Stichting Qigong therapy was invited to Uganda after one of our team members was contacted with an urgent request! Uganda desperately needs qualified autism therapists. This prompted our organisation to take action. In response to the urgent need for qualified autism therapists in Uganda, Stichting Qigong therapy provided our valuable expertise and resources to aid in this critical project. We recognised the importance of taking immediate action and were committed to contributing our skills and knowledge to make a meaningful difference. The following is how Stichting Qigong therapy assisted and proceeded to help. In Mbarara, our team assisted the training of 16 therapists from across Uganda in Qigong therapeutic massage for Autism. The sixteen graduates were of various academic backgrounds: Doctors, special needs teachers, nuns, priests and youth workers. After completing their education, the graduates returned to their hometowns. They used the Qigong therapy techniques they were taught in their clinics, schools and local communities, where they trained parents of children with Autism in Qigong techniques to help normalise their child’s sensory impairment.
ONGOING SUPERVISION AND SUPPORT After the initial training, the Stichting Qigong therapy therapists continued to monitor and support all newly certified trained Ugandan therapists until the end of the year.
Six months after the initial training, Stichting Qigong therapy sponsored the sixteen therapists to reunite in Jinja, Uganda, to prepare the results of their child-parent training, which they would then present to the Ministry of Health Headquarters, Wandegeya, Kampala; the results of the Qigong therapy of the past 6 months with the aim that Qigong therapy will be fully approved in Uganda and recognised as an alternative therapy for the treatment of autism and sensory processing disorder. It is with great delight that the Uganda therapist was given the go-ahead to continue treating autistic children in Uganda until the Qigong method is fully approved by the Ministry of Health. For the therapy to be fully approved, a firm database is needed to plan and implement Randomized Controlled trials in Uganda with control groups to account for extraneous variables. They emphasised that this should be necessary if the intervention is ever recognised as a scientific endeavour. Stichting Qigong therapy is proud to have assisted in training the Ugandan therapists, who have so much passion and drive to set up their own initiative to make Qigong therapy a recognised alternative therapy in Uganda, we wish them every success.