Who we are

Enable the Children is a team reaching out to provide Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy care and support to children with disabilities in Sierra Leone. We find patients in their own homes and teach the families or carers how to treat their own children using play, developmental positioning and feeding support. This promotes a more accepting relationship with these otherwise outcast children. Enable the Children has seen many improve in this love and go on to reach their full potential.

Meet our team

About us

Enable the Children has grown from the work of a British physiotherapist Verity Furneaux from 2007. In years previous to this, Verity had spent time in Sierra Leone with another organisation – Mercy Ships, working with amputees and Polio patients based from a Rehabilitation Centre. However she recognised a great need for more community based care as many of the most desperate patients, often children, were unable to afford to travel to the rehab centre regularly.

As a committed Christian, Verity read in the bible that Jesus reached out to the poor and needy. Trying to live a life as Jesus did, she dreamt of being the hands and feet of God's love to the disabled children of Sierra Leone. The motivation to keep persisting till the project was ongoing, was achieved by knowing that it was God ordained, and therefore God, not man, dependant. Sent with the backing of Church Mission Society, Verity moved to SL to pioneer the project now known as Enable the Children.

In Sierra Leone being able to work with patients in their own homes, means that they can see how to do the treatment themselves in a place they are familiar with, as well as how to include it into their every day lives. Antenatal and child health services are scarce and unaffordable so many children in Sierra Leone are born with disabilities or acquire them in their early years. Cerebral Palsy (brain damage) and other neurological defects are common, as are orthopaedic abnormalities. Extensive poverty, traditional beliefs and illiteracy means the affected child is often rejected and abandoned and are seen as a curse on the family. Working with the mothers particularly, we have a unique opportunity to explain the causes of the problems medically and try to unravel the belief that they have done something wrong.

Children's lives have been turned around despite still living with their disability. Some have been given the opportunity to feed without choking because they were lying down, some have played with their hands for the first time, others have sat upright or stood at eye level with their friends for the first time, and more have enjoyed quality time with their parents, siblings and neighbours.

Our on-going visits shows our commitment to them and the importance of the child in our eyes. It is amazing to see the effect this has on the community around. Disability, and more importantly the individual child becomes more accepted and included in life, right where they are living.

After 3 years in Sierra Leone, Verity has moved back to the UK to promote the work of Enable the Children there. She will continue to be involved from the sidelines, but is delighted to hand over the leadership to others who have also caught the vision.

Enable the Children is committed to developing this project to being locally led. Training and nurturing of national staff is essential. Abu Bangura has been with us from the beginning and is now a Rehabilitation Therapist and our Team Lead.