Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR)

The CBR Project provides comprehensive support to disabled people, their families and their communities in 38 villages. A major focus of the project is disabled people’s empowerment - in each village, DDSP helps disabled people to elect ‘village disabled people’s committees’, which play an important role in carrying out project activities. CBR project activities include:

• Basic/Health needs support:

Health education meetings are held in the villages and health materials such as water filters (to give the household access to safe drinking water) and mosquito nets are provided. Sick disabled people are helped to get to health center/hospital.

 

• Rehabilitation:

Disabled people are helped to access services out of Pursat such as orthotics, prosthetics and surgery. Village-based rehabilitation services such as physiotherapy, child stimulation, wheelchairs and other rehabilitation equipment are provided.

 

• Meeting social needs:

Peer counsellors support disabled people with psychosocial and behavioural problems such as alcoholism and depression. Disabled people are helped to form self-help groups for agricultural training. A study-tour/exchange visit for community improvement to a better community/organisation conducted when require.

 

• Meeting education needs:

Disabled children and children of disabled adults are helped to go to school. Kindergarten classes are supported and literacy classes are organised for adults. School materials such as books, pens school-bags are provided. School accessibility such as bicycle or transportation cost is provided for the vulnerable ones.

 

• Livelihood improvement:

It is mainly through agricultural field which is focusing on home gardening, composting, animal raising and fish-raising and so on. Groups of disabled people and other poor people have been formed as Self-Help Groups to raise cows/buffaloes and to manage water pumps, open/dug wells and ponds for small-scale irrigation, enabling group members to grow dry-season rice and vegetables.

 

• Local government capacity-building:

3 commune councils and 2 communes of office of social affaire veterans and youth rehabilitation have been helped to form ‘social committees’ to manage small funds for disabled people’s income generation and health improvement. Government district social workers are given CBR work experience and training.

 

• Awareness-raising and advocacy:

DDSP helps disabled people and the poor to participate in awareness-raising events such as International Day of Disabled People, International Women’s Day and International Children’s Day. We also organize Community Campaign/Forum which related to Environmental Protection and Domestic Violence. The project promotes people to grow fruit trees at home and at schools. Broadcasts are made on local radio highlighting disability and development issues. Representatives of village disabled people’s committees are helped to participate with the monthly commune councils meeting to mainstreaming the disability issue in the commune development plan.