Interdisciplinary Programmes

view large Image A woman is walking through the remains of her home -Sri Lanka after the tsunami catastrophe on 26 Dec. 2004.
A woman is walking through the remains of her home -Sri Lanka after the tsunami catastrophe on 26 Dec. 2004. After immediate relief measures, support is now provided within the communities. The tsunami left many people physically disabled and with neuro-psychiatric problems. © CBM
CBM's work is with people and communities, rather than disabilities. Medical work, aimed at reducing or overcoming impairments, is only one aspect of CBM's work. Increasingly, CBR programmes have the goals of human rights, socio-economic development and poverty alleviation, and operate under the guiding principles of participation, inclusion and sustainability. The strategy is to catalyse and enable the community to accept responsibility for meeting the needs of all its people, including people with disabilities. Disability issues therefore become part of general community development.

Community-Based Rehabilitation
CBR is a strategy within community development, for the full participation and inclusion of people with disabilities in the life of their communities. This involves the combined effort of all available medical, educational, social and vocational resources, working closely together with people with disabilities and their families. There is a move away from direct service delivery alone, to a twin-track approach which also focuses on the social model of disability, human rights, and inclusive practices.
Typical CBR measures include
  • information on causes of impairments and prevention
  • medical care, therapy and rehabilitation
  • services for people of all ages, with all forms of disabilities, including those with intellectual or psychiatric disabilities
  • promotion of inclusive education of children with disabilities
  • skills training and livelihood development
  • life skills education
  • advocating for the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life

CBM focuses on integrating people with disabilities into their communities, supporting them in finding ways to participate in all aspects of community life. To this end, it is important to overcome physical barriers as well as changing attitudes towards disabled people and overcoming the stigma attached to individual disabilities.

Economic Empowerment/Livelihood (EE/L)

CBM's engagement in EE/L constitutes the ultimate step towards comprehensive rehabilitation services to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). The engagement in economic activities paves the road for best possible integration, independence and self esteem. Core activities in this mandated field include the following:
  • Awareness Creation and Advocacy: Increasing awareness, particularly of governments and (employers) the private sector that PwDs have the right, the duty and the ability to participate in economic activities and get access to respective services in microfinance, business advice and -promotion. In this effort we closely cooperate with Disabled Persons Organisations.
  • Pre-vocational training: Assisting schools, which enrol PwDs to give due attention to vocational skills, being promoted side by side with academic education.
  • Skill- and Vocational training: Supporting training programmes to enhance marketable skills for persons with disabilities, as to improve opportunities for employment and self-employment.
  • Self-Employment: Promotion of PwD initiatives for the establishment of micro enterprises through business advice and provision of loans.
  • Mainstreaming: Promote access and integration of PwDs to existing vocational training- and employment programmes that were previously not accessible to disabled persons.

In Figures

In 2006,
  • CBM supported 217 (2004: 190) community-based rehabilitation (CBR) projects
  • CBR projects, supported by CBM, reached almost 271,713 (almost 200,000) people
  • 37,268 (36,554) persons with disabilities participated in EE/L programmes supported by CBM
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CBM active in post-emergency phase on the ground in Haiti

Washline had a femur fracture treated with an internal fixator and still needs crutches to walk. Port-au-Prince after the earthquake which hit Haiti on 12 January 2010.

CBM has raised more than two million EUR for Haiti's Emergency response and reconstruction programmes. The situation in the Haitian capital remains tough for persons with disabilities. Photo: CBM

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CBM supports Partner in Concepción, Chile

A collapsed building in Talca, approximately 300 km (186 miles) south of Santiago, Chile. A magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck the Latin American country in the early hours of February 27, 2010. Picture copyright: Reuters/Victor Ruiz Caballero, courtesy www.alertnet.org

Picture copyright: Reuters/Victor Ruiz Caballero, courtesy www.alertnet.org
Following the 8.8-magnitude earthquake with epicentre close to the Chilean city of Concepción and aftershocks, CBM will support its Partner in the region. CBM has one Partner Project in need of reconstruction, located in Concepción, the country's second largest city.

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Projects worldwide

Projects worldwide