Community Based Rehabilitation
“This is for me?” One of the ladies asked, looking at the beautiful hand-held mirror she just decorated. Her question is perhaps not surprising. For these village women, much of life is spent meeting the needs of others – cooking, cleaning, serving guests, sometimes working outside the home to support the family income, helping their children study, and caring for the specific needs of their child with a disability. Opportunities to lay aside their responsibilities and just come together as women are rare.
This is one of the reasons why Operation Mercy staff and local staff decided to invite the mothers of the children to the centre on a hot Saturday morning in May to do handicrafts together. At the beginning, when the mothers started to arrive, conversation was quiet. Not all of the mothers had met each other before. After a brief opening welcome from one of the volunteers, the first activity began. Holding a ball of yarn, the first woman said her name and then threw the ball to someone else—still holding onto the thread of yarn. At the end of the activity, the yarn stretched between all of the ladies in a crisscrossing pattern.
“What does this look like?” One of the Operation Mercy staff asked.
“A web,” the ladies answered. “A net.”
“What does this remind you of?”
Their responses were a little bit more varied.
“We are all connected.”
“We help one another.”
From there, everyone moved to a back room which was set up for the main activity. Step by step the ladies were led through the process of decoupage – decorating small mirror frames with colorful tissue. The room quickly transformed into a chaos of cutting, gluing, pasting, conversations, smiles, and laughter. At the end each woman proudly held onto her creation.
As women started to leave to return home, the remaining women conversed quietly. One mother began to share with another about the recent loss of her son who had a disability. As the other mother listened with compassion, she expressed how few people understand how precious their children with disabilities are. It was a brief conversation, but in that moment, suddenly they were connected by their shared love and understanding for their children. It was as if they were seeing their own experiences—the joys and sorrows—mirrored in another.
Receiving Help, Taking Responsibility
Amantur lives on a small farm in Kyrgyzstan that is quite remote, lying between two villages.
Hope Stored in His Heart
Most of all we sense that Haitham now has hope stored in his heart that he did not have before.
Showing a New Way
The staff helped Aygul and her colleagues better understand the effects of CP on the children and ways to increase the children’s mobility.
Chairs for Children
Positioning and proper support for children with disabilities is important for their development
Partnerships for Good
He now has a stable home for him and his family and is walking on his “new” foot.
The View Changes
After a couple of sessions on the back of a gentle horse, Jamal now rides with a smile on his face.
Never too late to learn!
With the support and help from the staff I learnt how to take care of a child with disability.
Partnership for Change
Both organizations continue to work in partnership with the mom and her son and we are seeing positive changes in their lives.
How a Mother’s Life Was Changed
On his own, he began to stand up and to hold himself on the wall.
Hope Starts in the Small Things
Most importantly, hope is present for Hamidjon because he has a loving mother, who, through our project, is able to experience support and acceptance, receive counselling and process her grief.
Trading Shame for Acceptance
So these women continue on, persevering on behalf of the children and their community, sharing a love and passion that grows warmer with time and over many more cups of hot tea.
Schooling Requires Cooperation
Adnan loves school. His mother smiles with pride and says to the Operation Mercy team, “Every day he wants to go to school.” Naturally gifted with a friendly and bold personality,
New Horizons
The view of the horizon from the CBR window is changing. As new life sprouts up and lurches forward around the CBR Center and throughout the villages,
Opening Doors to Equality
Children with disabilities (CWD) are being given the chance to learn at mainstream schools thanks to one of our partner organisations in Tajikistan.
School accessibility is one of the most important components of providing inclusive education and promotion of the rights of children with disabilities.
We Learn Together to Improve Our Lives!
Nazira is a mother of a child with disability, and a new staff of our partner organization. She participated in a training on early intervention for children with hearing and visual impairments.
Don’t Give Up, There Is Still Hope
After a year of working with her, she is now able to feed herself, shower independently and help with cleaning around the house! When we first started working with her,
Sing Hello
“Fahid, it is your turn to sing!” Our volunteers encourage and then, with a little bit of prompting, Fahid begins to sing for us.
Exploring New Ways of Moving
Yousif, a 4-year-old diagnosed with spina bifida, lay curled up in the corner of the living room floor. The doctors had told his family to give up hope—he was disabled and would remain that way for the rest of his life.
Not Just Playing Around
This child was 2 ½ years old and had never walked alone before!
Truth Boost
In spring 2023 we partnered with another NGO. Their local staff were running a centre in the old city for children with learning disabilities.
They wanted to integrate children with physical disabilities and asked our physical therapist (PT) and our occupational therapist (OT) to work specifically with these children.