More Africa
More Africa is an officially registered charity on Zanzibar which focuses on children and young adults with physical and/or mental disabilities.
The special school offers special education, physiotherapy, medical help, training and day care to children who are not admitted to the regular government schools because of their disability.
Purpose and Impact
More Africa was founded in 2015 by the Dutch Ellen van Beers and is runned by local talents who are trained by Ellen.
The main objective of More Africa is the special school, which offers every child the right to education, therapy and a meaningful day. More Africa has a nursery, primary, daycare, advanced and 16+ group and also offers space for an “inclusive kindergarten”.
More Africa also offers work experience placements in its own guesthouse focused on bar/restaurant, reception, housekeeping and gardening for young adults aged 16 and older.
On Zanzibar, education, counseling or therapy for children/young adults with disabilities is not self-evident. More Africa offers these children and young adults the opportunity to develop themselves in a familiar and safe environment. More Africa works with individual care plans and all children have their own personal goals which are worked on daily
Our work
Special education
More Africa provides customized special education for all children. This means that we work with a nursery, primary, advanced, daycare and 16+ group. All children have their own personal care plan, in which short and long term goals are formulated. Every day all goals are worked on and reported on daily. At the end of each month evaluations are made and every three months the goals are evaluated and adjusted where necessary. This measures the children’s progress.
Physical Therapy
More Africa offers physical therapy in addition to special education. There is a special physical therapy group with children with severe Cerebral Palsy. These children would be supervised from day 1 in “the west”, but unfortunately there are no opportunities for these children on Zanzibar.
More Africa particularly offers movement experiences and sensory stimulation for these children. In addition, it is extremely important to preserve with these children what can be preserved. Therefore, the continued movement of the joints is often very important.
Besides the children with severe cerebral palsy, More Africa also offers physical therapy to some children from the nursery and primary group. Half-sided paralysis is relatively common on Zanzibar, often in combination with epilepsy.
Furthermore, we offer therapy to toddlers who have developmental delays.
Medical care
Health care on Zanzibar is very poor and there is not much knowledge in this area either. Parents often want the best for their child, but do not know where to go. There are still local “clinics” where people go to see a witchdoctor. Epilepsy, for example, is seen as the devil revealing itself in one’s body. There are still complete rituals on Zanzibar for expelling it.
It is difficult to get parents to understand that “we” in the West have other explanations for this.
There can be no real diagnoses for it here on Zanzibar, due to lack of equipment. This is why we take our children to the mainland for check-ups.
Then comes the next problem: medication. Money.
More Africa pays all costs for medication, checkups etcetera. More Africa also goes with the appointments, firstly to make sure that one really goes, secondly to stay well informed about what the doctors say and thirdly to assist the parents and the child and give more explanations where necessary. For this purpose, More Africa raises targeted funds.
Daycare & Training
In early 2019, the More Africa Guesthouse opened, where tourists can stay and through their stay
donate directly to the project.
Some of the 16+ youth are being inducted into the guesthouse in order to make a positive contribution to society and the community in this way. The young people have a meaningful daytime activity and More Africa hopes that in the long term it will become less taboo within the community when you have a disability. Even with a disability you can be an important member in this society!