Carer’s Voluntary Humanitarian Visit
A PEMBROKESHIRE residential home Deputy Manager is set to use her skills to help people with disabilities and mental health difficulties during a voluntary humanitarian visit to Africa.
Louise Barrett, Deputy Manager at The Haven, is about to embark on a voluntary mission in Kenya which will see her spend two weeks in a village alongside other volunteers from charity Love Ur Neighbour.
The group will be helping to improve accessibility to education for children with physical disabilities and an additional important aspect of her trip will see Louise also use her professional skills to enhance understanding around mental health needs and epilepsy. These are skills she uses when supporting people with in her day-to-day work at The Haven, an Accomplish Group service which supports adults with mental health difficulties, learning disabilities and acquired brain injuries.
During her trip Louise will share her knowledge about supporting and caring for people with mental health needs and epilepsy, offering training and advice to families and carers. Not only will this improve their knowledge and understanding, it will directly positively impact on people’s quality of life.
She said: “I want to bring the Accomplish values to Kenya. The work that the charity is doing is moving mountains because this will be the first time the people in this Kenyan village will have been educated about epilepsy, mental health and learning disabilities. I want to help them understand that everyone is unique and we should celebrate this.
“It is wonderful that I have this opportunity to take the skills and experience I have gained through my work at Accomplish and hopefully benefit people overseas in this way.”
Some of the people supported at The Haven have written about their experiences of living with epilepsy or schizophrenia. These will be shared with the people in the village so they can understand what it is like to be supported living with those conditions.
Mel Ramsey, CEO of Accomplish Group, said: “We are proud to support Louise on her trip and we know colleagues and people we support will want to support her too.
“Louise put together 50 gift bags for the children of the village and we encouraged colleagues and people we support to create additional items for her to take too. People have contributed lovely items such as poems, artwork and pieces of craftwork such as handmade bracelets.
“Louise truly is an example of making every day amazing, which is our vision at Accomplish. She is giving up her own time to benefit others in this wonderful way and we wish her all the very best for her trip.”
