Rank Hovis News

07/06/2011
Rank Hovis flour sacks used in furniture production

When building furniture you wouldn't think that paper flour sacks would be a suitable material, but a charity set up to help sufferers of Cerebral Palsy in Africa uses just that! Chairs, tables and standing frames are just some of the pieces that participants are taught how to make on courses run the charity - Cerebral Palsy Africa (CPA).

Across Africa the specialist therapy needed to treat Cerebral Palsy sufferers is hard to come by. Those with specialist training are relied upon to pass on their knowledge and skills to others, such as community workers, who can support families in the day to day rehabilitation of children.

How Cerebral Palsy Africa helps out is by running concise training courses to give people the specialist training they need to help provide sufferers with physiotherapy or occupational therapy. This treatment is imperative from very early in their lives so they can be helped to hold themselves upright and move purposefully. Without this they can become stiff and immobile, making it difficult to lead independent, satisfying lives.

The furniture is an important part of the rehabilitation; this allows sufferers to be supported in a sitting up position and gives them the chance to learn what it feels like to be supported in standing. Flour sacks and cardboard are just some of the materials used to make furniture; participants on Appropriate Paper-based Technology (APT) workshops are taught how to strengthen the materials before making it into chairs and tables etc. The charity relies heavily on personal donations in order to carry on this much needed help and resource in areas such as Zambia, Uganda, Malawi and Rwanda to name but a few. How one Rank Hovis customer is helping out is by donating all their used flour sacks to CPA, they really go along way in changing the lives of young African children with Cerebral Palsy.

Not sure what to do with your used flour sacks....you too can help out by donating them, get in contact with the charity by logging on to their website http://cerebralpalsyafrica.org/

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