Children's center sets sights on Africa

Group plans to leave Aug. 10 for Nigeria

Danielle NAdler/ViewClockwise from left, Tania Stegen-Hanson, Luke Hanson, Yvonne Randall, Jodie Hamblin, Gemma Aschliman, Susan Holden and Dave Hanson sit inside the Achievement Therapy Center. The group is hoping to raise money to travel to Africa. Advertisement

A typical scene inside Achievement Therapy Center shows kids climbing on an indoor play set, a handful of others bouncing on a trampoline in the backyard and a group circled around occupational therapists playing games.

The goal of the center is to teach children their "occupations," for example playing, talking, reading and self-care, while having fun, said owner and occupational therapist Tania Stegen-Hanson.

She and several of the center's employees wish to bring that same joy and help to orphaned and disabled children in three rural villages in Nigeria. The group of nine leaves on Aug. 10 for the 12-day mission.

They will land in the country's capital city of Abuja and drive the six-hour trek on makeshift roads to an orphanage. Most of the roughly 250 children who live at the orphanage were either abandoned by their families or their parents have died.

Stegen-Hanson heard about the need for help at the orphanage eight years ago from a friend, Pauline Rappold, who grew up in Nigeria with missionary parents. Rappold returned to the United States with stories of children who needed basic needs met. Groups have gone to the region to provide medicine, but no one has offered intervention and education for the disabled children.

"We've been blessed with these awesome skills that we've been able to serve our community with, and hearing that these kids need care just really hit us," Stegen-Hanson said. "This is how we can serve these children."

The group will teach the children's caregivers, called aunties, how to prepare infants to feed through a technique called Beckman Oral Motor Intervention. They also will teach the aunties how to help disabled children using what they have in the village. They also will make toys and games that will improve children's hand-eye coordination, speech and handwriting.

"Our goal this time around is to see what the needs are," Stegen-Hanson said. "Then we will come back and start developing programs that will help."

She added that down the line, she hopes to record training videos for the aunties and ship needed medical equipment. The team will bring some medical supplies, such as gloves, bottles and straws.

The orphanage does not receive any government funding, but relies solely on donations and, according to Stegen-Hanson, miracles.

"Some days, the director doesn't know what will be for dinner that night, and a shipment of food will show up at the door," she said.

Through several fundraisers, the group has barely chipped away at the $20,000 needed for the trip. The group is still in need of several thousand dollars to help cover flights, supplies and immunizations. Life Baptist Church and Las Vegas Multisport will host a jog-a-thon fundraiser for the trip at 8 a.m. Aug. 1 at the church, 5555 Redwood St. Participants are asked to solicit pledges based on the number of laps they walk or jog on the quarter-mile loop.

Group members will blog throughout the trip on their Web site, www.ot4peds.com. The site also has a donation link.

The team includes Stegen-Hanson's husband, Dave, and 3-year-old son, Luke, Rappold, occupational therapists Jodie Hamblin and Susan Holden and associate professor at the School of Occupational Therapy at Touro University of Nevada Yvonne Randall.

"This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time but didn't have the courage to go on my own," Randall said. "We all know each other so well and work together so well, it will be a great opportunity to help."

Stegen-Hanson started Achievement Therapy Center 10 years ago. Now run out of a house at 6760 W. Quail Ave., the center provides therapy services for children with autism, behavioral and emotional disorders, down syndrome, learning disabilities and other disorders. It serves about 80 children a week. The center will be closed while the team is in Nigeria.

The therapists plan to bring back stories of the Nigerian children to share at the Nevada Occupational Therapy Association's Convention in August.

"We want to inspire others to use their talents to help those in need," Stegen-Hanson said. "The world really is small."

Contact Southeast and Southwest View reporter Danielle Nadler at dnadler@viewnews.com or 224-5524.