About us
Our mission
To improve hand injury care in resource challenged settings in order to reduce disability, improve quality of life and increase chances of work for people with hand injuries and conditions
To provide accessible, relevant and captivating learning opportunities for generalist occupational therapists and physiotherapists that motivate ongoing development for hand-injury care
To invite hand therapists acquainted with the challenges faced in low to middle income countries to participate in strengthening hand injury care in these settings by sharing their expertise.
Our values
Our Team
Nicola Ehlers
Nicola started her career providing general occupational therapy services in community clinics, before taking a post in a public regional hospital where she worked for more than a decade.
Here she discovered her love for hand therapy and went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in hand therapy in 2017.
Her commitment to ensuring patients receive the best possible care in spite of contextual challenges continued to grow, as did her passion for supporting therapists facing these same challenges, culminating in the Open Hand Therapy Initiative.
Kirsty van Stormbroek
Kirsty has gained extensive experience working in a rural community, at a specialised hand unit in a tertiary hospital, in academia and in private practice, giving her a unique, multifaceted perspective on hand therapy.
Her passion for equitable access to hand-injury care fuelled her Master’s and PhD research, both of which focussed on the needs of novice and generalist therapists providing hand therapy.
The guidelines that she developed laid the foundation for the Open Hand Therapy Initiative, where she continues to advance the mandate of “Hand-Injury Care for All”.
erica Conibear
Erica spent the first 3 years of her career as a generalist occupational therapist in rural Eastern Cape, where she learned to overcome the challenges of providing multiple services with limited resources.
She is advanced level trained in wheelchair service delivery and has a Master’s in public health. She is also passionate about providing trauma-informed care.
In each of these areas she continues to develop her passion for training, advocacy and systems thinking, which she brings to the heart of the Open Hand Therapy Initiative.
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