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.
Promoting Inclusion
An annual conference for mainstream school teachers and school transition support services helped promote inclusion in local communities.
Amina, a young girl with speech and cognitive delays,
Never too late to learn!
With the support and help from the staff I learnt how to take care of a child with disability.
New Found Confidence
During the last couple of weeks, Ahmed’s gait and posture have significantly improved.
First Aid Training Programme
After living in Central Asia for a year and engaging closely with the local community, I noticed a significant gap in health knowledge. Many people would quickly panic in medical situations simply because they did not know how to respond.
Empowerment and Advocacy
Through the project, Akmal was introduced to a world of possibilities.
Changing the Trajectory
Danior used to be angry all the time. He was quick to attack and hit the other kids at the children’s home. He had reasons to be angry –
Wheelchair Gives New Hope in Life
The wheelchair has not only contributed to Amir’s improvement physically, but emotionally and psychologically as well.
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.
An Event for Mothers
“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,
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.
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,
Partnerships for Good
He now has a stable home for him and his family and is walking on his “new” foot.
A New Chair
She really enjoyed her new chair and even after this very short time, it was recognisable that her body posture had already been improved.
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.
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.
Receiving Help, Taking Responsibility
Amantur lives on a small farm in Kyrgyzstan that is quite remote, lying between two villages.
Chairs for Children
Positioning and proper support for children with disabilities is important for their development
Training for Local Health Care Professionals
Kangaroo care and skin to skin contact between mother and newborn baby – these are vital practices unheard of in the local Kazakh neonatology hospitals.
Partnership Opens the Way to School
There are many barriers for a child with disability to access education in Tajikistan. Sometimes this barrier is seen in the attitudes of people that think children with disabilities don’t belong in school or should be kept separate from other children.
Professionalism Produces Results
Practical training like this empowers therapists to be more professional and to achieve better results in their treatment.