Clare Kyarisiima is the founder of Touched Minds Charity Initiative (TMCI), a non-profit supporting underprivileged families and children born with disabilities. Due to the love she has for children, Kyarisiima has decided to spend her life linking children born with disabilities who need specialised medical care to specialists for treatment and surgery. She shares her journey with Lilian Ntege.
Starting TMCI
In 2012, while working with a research consultancy firm she prefers is kept anonymous, Kyarisiima says she conceived the idea to do something about the state of the vulnerable children she had encountered.
“I had visited a certain family while doing my household surveys. While I was leaving, I found children playing football in the compound, but there was one who was sitting on the ground with his legs folded beneath his buttocks,” Kyarisima says.
She says from his facial expressions, it was easy to tell that the boy who sat with a pair of crutches by his side really wanted to take part in the game, but was not getting the chance.
Kyarisima would later realise that the boy was living with a disability.
He had rickets; a condition that affects born development among children, causing poor growth and leading to deformity.
“That [encounter] touched me so much. I started looking for ways I could be of help to this child,” Nimusiima says.
When she shared the experience with her colleague, she was referred to Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services Uganda (CoRSU), an entity which provides subsidised surgeries and rehabilitation to vulnerable patients, especially children.
After doing more research about this facility, Kyarisiima was shocked at how people are suffering due to obliviousness.
“This opened my mind to the realization that in most rural areas, there is less sensitization about treatment of some disabilities which could be corrected at an early stage, even at a free cost in some hospitals,” Kyarisiima says.
When she contacted CoRSU, a ray of hope was shone. Kyarisiima connected the parents of the boy to CoRSU, where he later received surgery and treatment.
From then, she decided to be the bridge, thereby establishing Touched Minds Charity Initiative.
How they work
Kyarisiima works with three other colleagues to study the general living conditions of the most disadvantaged and find suitable organizations that offer subsidized treatment.
She says they go deep in villages to identify the children. But also, sometimes, people reach out to them through their social media platforms. Some are referred by those who know about TMCI.
After identifying a child, they facilitate transportation to and from the particular treatment facility where the children receive help.
They also provide other basic needs such as clothes, soap, food and sanitaries.
Beneficiary
Barbra Babirye says learned about TMCI through Facebook when Kyarisiima shared a post about her work in a group they are both members.
“I came to understand that Clare was helping children with disabilities, including those with cleft lips. It was such a good coincidence because my sister had given birth five hours before I saw the post, and we had realised that my nephew had a cleft lip,” Babirye says.
She quickly messaged Kyarisiima. Thankfully, she got an immediate response.
After two months of interaction, her nephew received surgery at Smile Train Hospital, a CoRSU affiliated health facility.
“My nephew’s surgery was a success and he now has a very beautiful smile; thanks to Clare who became part of us. We regard her as family now,” Babirye says.
So far, Kyarisiima and her team have helped at least 200 children get surgery, and over 150 others benefited from their charity drives in districts of Mityana, Kamwengye, Kampala and Wakiso.
Challenges
Like any other non-profit, Kyarisiima says they still struggle financially at times. “But we use our own savings and at times from well-wishers who donate to us,” Kyarisiima says.
Besides while doing their outreaches and sensitization programmes, Kyarisiima says they face difficulty in changing some narratives, especially in villages where people still think that some disabilities are a result of witchcraft.
Future prospects
Kyarisiima says their long-term goal is to build a school for some of the children who, even after medical treatment, do not afford school fees.
She also says they are planning to build a rehabilitation and recovery centre where they will be able to accommodate children and care takers after surgery.
These will help both patients and their parents coming from districts out of Kampala.
Kyarisiima believes change begins with individuals and if everyone participates, however small their contribution may be, the world would be a better place.
