World Partners

The Wyoming Occupational Therapy Association created a program to share resources with an Occupational Therapy department in a foreign country. The WyOTA members approved the program in 1999; thus WyOTA World Partners began.

Following contact with the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) WyOTA adopted an occupational therapy clinic in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a small island country in the Indian Ocean off the country of India. The population of Sri Lanka of over 16 million lives on just over 25,000 square miles of land. The government of Sri Lanka is unstable and there is a fair amount of violence in the country. Despite the governmental unrest, the country offers a great deal of cultural experiences, which can be found nowhere else. The occupational therapy department is the only Army rehabilitation center in the country and serves the 25,00 plus soldiers injure as a result of terrorism. Mr. V.G. Wimaladasa, an occupational therapist, who works with two assistants who have ambulations as a result of the civil unrest, leads the department.

The vision of the WyOTA Executive Board was tprovide materials and resources tOccupational Therapists working in areas of the world with limited professional resources. WyOTA hopes tsomeday establish an exchange program where therapists from Wyoming travel tSri Lanka tshare skills and techniques and vise versa.

Since the initiation of this program, Wyoming therapists have donated nearly $4000.00 worth of materials and resources tthe occupational therapy department in which Mr. Wimaladasa works. NWyOTA funds have been used for this project. Mr. Wimaladasa frequently communicates via email with Jill and presently is would be interested in obtaining the following items:

  • Shoulder CPM
  • Hand CPM
  • Hand assessment tools
  • Any other devices for upper body and upper extremity rehabilitation

If you have any of these items tdonate (they need not be new, just in good working order), please contact Jill and she would be happy tarrange for the shipping. If you have any questions or would like tbecome more involved with this effort, Jill would love thear from you.

The Webmaster is working on posting a videfrom Mr. Wimaladas showing his country and the clinic. Look for an announcement on the home page of the WyOTA Website once it is available.
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