Enable the Children
Poor healthcare, poverty, and stigma leave many children living with disabilities in Sierra Leone and Liberia vulnerable to exclusion, discrimination, and limited access to support and opportunity.
Project Information
Project Status: Active
Start Date: 2015
End Date: Ongoing
Countries: Sierra Leone and Liberia
Supporting children living with disabilities
Children living with disabilities (CLWDs) in Sierra Leone and Liberia continue to face significant barriers to healthcare, education, and inclusion. Poverty, limited rehabilitation services, and widespread stigma often leave children excluded from school, healthcare, and community life. Deeply rooted cultural beliefs can result in children being hidden, neglected, or viewed as a burden, while families frequently lack the support and resources needed to care for them.
That’s where World Hope International’s Enable the Children (ETC) program comes in. Founded in 2007, ETC provides holistic rehabilitation, psychosocial support, and disability inclusion programming for children and families across Sierra Leone and Liberia. ETC’s multidisciplinary team includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, pastors, and community support staff who work together to improve the quality of life of children living with disabilities and strengthen the systems that support them. ETC now serves approximately 1,700 children annually through home visits, clinics, schools, hospitals, and community-based programs.
Children supported by ETC live with a wide range of disabilities and developmental conditions, including cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury, autism, Down syndrome, muscular dystrophy, developmental delay, amputations, and orthopedic challenges. ETC works not only with children, but also with parents, caregivers, teachers, pastors, community leaders, and government rehabilitation workers to create more inclusive communities and sustainable support systems.
Improving the Lives of Child Amputees
Since 2018, Enable the Children has made an intentional effort to improve the lives of children living with amputations through World Hope International. ETC initially partnered with Elizabeth’s Legacy of Hope (ELOH) to provide holistic support for children and families affected by amputation in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Following the closure of ELOH, ETC has continued supporting these children and expanding services to children living with amputations in both countries.
Through the ongoing generosity of supporters, ETC provides prosthetics, surgeries, physiotherapy, assistive devices, school sponsorship, and regular home visits to help children participate more fully in everyday life. Over the years, a number of children supported by the program have successfully transitioned out of the program and are now attending university in both Sierra Leone and Liberia. Others have gone on to achieve success in sport, including one child who represented Sierra Leone at the Tokyo Paralympic Games and several young people in Liberia who are now representing their country through the national amputee football team. We are proud of the resilience and achievements of these children and remain committed to supporting future generations of children living with amputations.
Project Goals
- To enable children living with disabilities to be included, loved, and valued in their families and communities, ensuring a good quality of life
- To empower families and communities to provide physical, emotional, developmental, and educational support for children living with disabilities
- To strengthen rehabilitation systems and disability inclusion services in Sierra Leone and Liberia through workforce development, advocacy, and community engagement
- To reduce stigma and create inclusive environments where children living with disabilities can fully participate in school, play, family life, and community activities
Expected Outcomes
- Reduced stigma and discrimination against children and adults living with disabilities
- Families and caregivers equipped to support children with disabilities through therapy and developmental training
- Strengthened rehabilitation services and national support systems for children living with disabilities and their families
- Increased access to inclusive education, sports, and future livelihood opportunities for children living with disabilities
- Communities, schools, churches, NGOs, and leaders empowered to create more inclusive environments for children living with disabilities
Children living with disabilities supported annually across Sierra Leone and Liberia
Teachers trained in disability inclusion and inclusive classroom practices
Physiotherapy students and graduates supported through mentorship, supervision, and rehabilitation workforce training
Children, families, and community members reached through ETC services, training, advocacy, and inclusion events
How It Works
ETC staff provide home-based and clinic-based physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychosocial support, and caregiver training for children living with disabilities. Staff work alongside families to teach positioning, feeding, communication, mobility, and play-based developmental activities that can be continued at home in sustainable and practical ways. ETC also supports caregivers emotionally through counselling, caregiver groups, father-focused sessions, and community support networks, helping families reduce isolation and stigma. In addition, ETC works with local carpenters, tailors, and technicians to produce affordable assistive devices and positioning equipment that improve children’s comfort, mobility, and participation in everyday life.
In Sierra Leone, ETC works through hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, and community organizations to provide integrated rehabilitation services while also helping strengthen the national rehabilitation sector. ETC partners with the Sierra Leone Physiotherapy Association and the National Rehabilitation Programme to support the development of physiotherapy and occupational therapy services across the country. ETC staff also teach and mentor students at the Tonkolili District College of Health Sciences physiotherapy program and provide clinical supervision, mentorship, and professional development opportunities for physiotherapy students and newly qualified graduates. In Liberia, ETC partners with the Monrovia Rehabilitation Center at John F. Kennedy Medical Center to strengthen pediatric rehabilitation services, support rehabilitation worker training, improve referral systems, and contribute to the development of rehabilitation profession standards, scopes of practice, and future physiotherapy education pathways within Liberia.
ETC also promotes disability inclusion and works to challenge the stigma and discrimination that children living with disabilities and their families often face. Through teacher training, school awareness activities, inclusive sports and play events, church and mosque engagement, and community sensitization programs, ETC helps communities better understand disability and celebrate the value and potential of every child. Faith leaders, teachers, community leaders, traditional leaders, NGO workers, and humanitarian organizations are trained to promote inclusion and strengthen disability-inclusive practices within their own programs and services. ETC additionally supports families through small business grants and livelihood initiatives that help build long-term resilience and stability.
Over the years, ETC has become a nationally recognized leader in disability inclusion and rehabilitation in both Sierra Leone and Liberia. Governments, national networks, hospitals, schools, and disability organizations regularly seek ETC’s technical input and collaboration on rehabilitation, child protection, inclusive education, and disability policy. In Sierra Leone, ETC currently leads the Technical Working Group for Children Living with Disabilities, helping guide national discussions and policy development for children living with disabilities. In Liberia, ETC currently chairs the Alliance on Disability, bringing together disability organizations and stakeholders to strengthen advocacy, coordination, and inclusion efforts across the country.
