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September 13, 2022

Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers Conduct a Career Talk at Kabudula Primary School

Ms. Hikari Funada, the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) who is in Primary School Education field and is working at Kabudula Primary School in Lilongwe rural area, organized a career talk at the school. During this career talk, Mr. Yu Sasaki, the JOCV who is currently working as a Physiotherapist at Kamuzu Central Hospital and his two colleagues, Mr. Francis Mtambalika, an Occupational Therapy Technician and Ms. Wezzie Harawa, a Physiotherapist, did the presentations.

The objective of this career talk was to expose pupils in this school to the physiotherapy profession and share with them the duties of a physiotherapist. Mr. Sasaki presented a broad overview of the physiotherapy profession, a presentation that was done in Chichewa, Malawi vernacular language in Malawi. He stated that a physiotherapist is someone who helps to restore functioning or movement of certain body parts when someone has been affected by illness, injury or disability. He went in details to explain about what he does as a Physiotherapist at Kamuzu Central Hospital that include treating people with injuries like broken bones. He also treats people who have been incapacitated with diseases, leading to failure to undertake normal tasks of movement through use of exercises or massage.

Following Mr. Sasaki's presentation, Ms. Wezzie Harawa made a presentation starting from the easy exercise for icebreaking of pupils. Her explanation made pupils understand the roles of Physiotherapy in addition to Mr. Sasaki's presentation. She also gave a few details on how they treat patients suffering from strokes. As a young lady, she also appealed to young girls at the school as a role model, motivating them to work hard in school and excel in life. She explained the path that they need to follow for them to be physiotherapist i.e. complete primary school education, proceed to secondary school and then pursue occupational therapy course at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences in Blantyre.

Later on, Mr. Francis Mtambalika, presented his roles as an Occupational Therapy Technician, being someone who uses particular activities, as an aid to recuperate from physical or mental illness. As an Occupational Therapy Technician, he works with people having disabilities, injuries and mental health problems for them to recover and be able to go back to work and continue carry out their various occupations. He urged pupils to work hard in their studies and excel in primary school education, secondary education, then enrol at Kachere Rehabilitation College in Blantyre where you graduate with a qualification in Occupational Therapy (OT) and work as a Technician. However, for those who want to upgrade their profession, various colleges outside Malawi offers such opportunities. He highlighted to the pupils the benefits of being trained as an occupational therapist.

Through this career talk presentation, about 80 pupils were introduced to another profession that they might consider to pursue in future apart from the common careers that young pupils in Malawi know about, that include being a teacher or a nurse. Kabudula, being a rural area, exposure of such careers to learners will significantly motivate pupils work hard and excel in their studies to achieve their dreams in this field of expertise.

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