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.
Wheelchair Gives New Hope in Life
The wheelchair has not only contributed to Amir’s improvement physically, but emotionally and psychologically as well.
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.
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.
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.
Empowering Mothers
“It is so important that you know your rights!”
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.
Perseverance Brings Progress
Now Rustam can express himself, he is socializing with his peers, and he is participating in the cultural events of the organization. Rustam is ready to go to school!
Receiving Help, Taking Responsibility
Amantur lives on a small farm in Kyrgyzstan that is quite remote, lying between two villages.
How a Mother’s Life Was Changed
On his own, he began to stand up and to hold himself on the wall.
New Found Confidence
During the last couple of weeks, Ahmed’s gait and posture have significantly improved.
Empowerment and Advocacy
Through the project, Akmal was introduced to a world of possibilities.
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.
Now He Sits Like a King!
Positioning and proper support for children with cerebral palsy is crucial to their development and also to interacting and engaging with their environment.
Healing and Growth
During a wedding in a small local village a large fire broke out!
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.
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.
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 –
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,
Partnerships for Good
He now has a stable home for him and his family and is walking on his “new” foot.
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.