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ACTIVITIES
OF AIFO:
COMMUNITY
BASED REHABILITATION (CBR) PROJECTS
The
CBR strategy was launched by World Health Organisation (WHO) and other agencies of United Nations in
early eighties for promoting rehabilitation of persons with disabilities
in developing countries, where majority of them do not have access to
any rehabilitation services. Rather than institution-based
rehabilitation, CBR proposed rehabilitation interventions at home and
the local community, through non-professional rehabilitation workers.
Having started as part of WHO, it had strong medical connotations and
was also seen as part of primary health care. The CBR approach
philosophy was also influenced by the Alma Ata declaration of 1978 that
had proposed a much wider view of health and disease, by underlining the
importance of individuals and their communities in determining the
community health policies and implementation of health services.
 After
more than 20 years of experience with CBR approach, at present it is
strongly influenced by social model of disability. Under this view, the
society’s role in creating and maintaining barriers is paramount in
“disabling” the persons with impairments. This also means that as
long as persons with disabilities will be looked upon as a
“problem”, it will not be possible to change the negative social
attitudes. It also requires that society must change and adapt to accept
disabled persons.
Since
1986-88, AIFO has gained noteworthy experience in
implementation of CBR programmes, with interventions involving persons
with different disabilities, both physical and mental, as well those
linked to leprosy. Initially, these projects focused only on medical
aspects of rehabilitation, but over the last few years, the strategies
have been expanded to cover aspects such as economic self-sufficiency,
education and training. The CBR projects are seen as medium to long-term
processes, and as an integral part of community development. In these
projects, AIFO gives priority to:
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Promoting
awareness and discussions among disabled persons, their families and
their communities about difficulties faced by persons with
disabilities in terms of human rights and about the role of
collective action for empowerment of vulnerable groups.
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Support
and strengthen the grass-root organisations and their networking.
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To
act through community volunteers and community workers, so that
disabled persons and their families can learn simple measures of
self-care and rehabilitation, especially linked with activities of
daily living and production of simple orthopaedic appliances.
-
To
act through school teachers and community members for promoting
access of children with disabilities to existing formal education
system in an inclusive environment and promoting child-to-child
approach for reaching all disabled children. It also means promoting
informal education for adults with disabilities.
-
Through
community and village groups promoting savings and credit groups,
mutual support groups and cooperatives for disabled persons for
improving their economic independence, in ways that respect local
cultures and knowledges; promote professional training courses for
young adults with disabilities and their family members.
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To
work together with national organisations of disabled persons
(DPOs), for strengthening them and for promoting leadership and
advocacy capacities among their members; promoting networking among
similar DPO organisations at different levels.
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To
work together with governmental administration at different levels,
national, provincial, district and local, for strengthening access
to referral and specialist services.
The CBR projects supported by AIFO can be sub-divided in to three main
groups:
-
Projects
in collaboration with governments that cover big territories
(national or provincial level): such projects are present in Mongolia,
Indonesia,
Vietnam, etc.
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Projects
in collaboration with national NGOs that act as resource-support
organisations for strengthening other smaller national NGOs and
grass-root groups: such projects are present in
Nepal,
Pakistan,
Liberia, Egypt,
Somalia, etc.
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Leprosy
and primary health care projects, that have enlarged their
activities to include CBR: It has been a strategy of AIFO to ask NGO
and religious organisations involved in leprosy and primary health care
projects to extend their activities to CBR. Such projects are in
India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Mozambique, Brazil, etc.
For
more information about AIFO supported CBR activities, take
a look at AIFO annual reports and other publications.
Other
AIFO Activities:
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