06TH October is World Cerebral Palsy day or cerebral Palsy awareness day each year.

Cerebral Palsy is a group of disorders that affect a Person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. It is the most common motor disability in childhood.

Cerebral means having to do with the brain, Palsy means weakness or problems with using muscles.

Damage to the developing brain that causes cerebral palsy can affect a child’s motor function, postures, and balance , as well as cognitive development.

A child may express these as a sign of cerebral palsy;

-abnormal posture.

-crawling in a lopsided manner.

-difficulty with motor skills like; eating, brushing teeth.

-Hearing loss or blindness.

There are over 17m people impacted by this disorder including; children, families and other caretakers.

Cerebral Palsy affects majorly children. In the Netherlands, a child is born with cerebral palsy every 22hours.

This disorder occurs over the span of a child’s lifetime with no cure and obviously calls for support beyond family – but community through a knowing of how the disorder affects and how best they can help.

This knowledge could even influence service provision in communities as to fit both types of people including those affected by cerebral palsy. The ultimate reason for world cerebral palsy day is inclusion- and that would have been met.

The vision of the world cerebral palsy movement is to ensure that children and adults with cerebral palsy have the same rights access and opportunities as anyone else in society.

Uganda has over 900 registered patients , yet the numbers hidden are still believed to be in huge amounts.

The personal causes of cerebral palsy remain unknown , research however shows that a small percentage rises from birth related complications like lack of oxygen.

Although premature birth is the largest risk factor for cerebral palsy, it’s the causal pathways that led this circumstance that may cause the cerebral palsy, rather than the premature birth itself.

As Uganda today joins the rest of the world for the world cerebral palsy day, we are all reminded to be a voice for change, to celebrate difference.

And because it is world Cerebral Palsy awareness day our take home here today is; cerebral palsy is not a disease but a disorder and that’s preventable!

#AmillionOfReasons

courtesy photo.