Enablement-Nepal, together with Enablement Ltd., based in the Netherlands now offer a training in Cerebral Palsy in Kathmandu, Nepal. We are pleased to announce this training which will be delivered by highly experienced trainers.
Training dates: July 31, 2023 to August 5, 2023
"As we now move forward post-pandemic (hopefully), it seems clear that virtual care will remain a core aspect of healthcare in Australia.
[...] Telehealth is not going away. According to Solve-Care CEO, “India has the potential to have one of the highest users of telehealth services in the world, making it a natural choice for [us] to make India a focus and important market.”But moving forward we need a better understanding of how virtual health has evolved in the last two years, and to explore ways to make it inclusive and equitable.
To this end, the Nossal Institute for Global Health (University of Melbourne) along with partners including the George Institute, Adelaide University and Infosys have been funded by the Australia India Council to expand accessible virtual care in India and Australia. The project is called VirtuCare.VirtuCare works with the health and ICT industry, government and healthcare providers, and most importantly people with disability, to co-design a model of care that will address health and rehabilitation needs of people with disability – those who were often excluded in the recent rapid expansion of telehealth. Once we get the model right, we aim to expand the initiative to the national disability and health systems. To achieve this, we partner with e-Sanjiveeni, the government of India’s telehealth platform, to document learning from use of telehealth during the pandemic and to inform future inclusive telehealth models."
Nathan Grills
Read more about the VirtuCare project here!
Within the context of the project, the VirtuCare team aims to codesign a platform and content for supporting CBID workers. In such a process, the team would work with trainees at 1-2 sites in India to determine what these trainees actually need and would be the best platform to deliver this. This will also be informed by the literature review and survey that aims to understand the usage of virtual care (barriers and enablers) for people with disability.
Enablement's RehApp, which is designed to help equip CBID workers could be used as a prototype for CBID trainees to start exploring, discussing, and designing a virtual healthcare platform to support them in delivering care to people with disability.
The 3rd DCIDJ issue of 2022 has just been published. A must-read for those who are concerned about climate change as it features a guest editorial that has been published in over 250 scientific journals. Another reason to read this issue of the journal is the fact that there seems to be a renaissance of CBR in South Africa which clearly is presented in 2 well-written articles coming from that country. Enjoy, read, share and comment on the content. Keep the journal alive and thus contribute to the debates; submit your manuscripts; become a reviewer and get involved! Feel free to write to me at editor.dcid@gmail.com
Introduction of the organisation
Enablement Nepal is a non-profit organisation registered in Nepal in 2014. Enablement is an active role-player in the
field of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID), and the rights of persons with disabilities including access to justice. The Enablement Nepal’s team consists of well-known experts in disability and development in Nepal.
Introduction of training
Enablement-Nepal, together with experts from Enablement Ltd., Netherlands offers a training in contemporary approaches in working the child with cerebral palsy.
If you are not able to enter the zoom event because we have exceeded capacity, then please join via our Youtube Livestream: https://youtu.be/Xd58zZaHhrQ
Dear stakeholders involved in the RehApp developments,
Today, we would like to share with you the good news: the RehApp 2.0 is finally ready to be launched. These past few weeks we have been testing the RehApp prototype in order to identify bugs and other issues. We are pleased to report that the new version is now ready and has been submitted to both the Google Play Store and the App Store. We expect approval within the coming weeks and would like to officially launch the app with you all, on June 17, 2022. Several speakers from different organisations have been invited to share their preliminary experiences with the new app as well as how their own innovations can complement it, and Chapal Khasnabis – Head of the Access to Assistive Technology and Medical Devices Unit at the World Health Organisation – will give the keynote speech. All those who are part of the RehApp network, including additional parties having expressed their interest, will receive an invitation to the online launch by the end of May.
Until the launch, we will continue to add translated content into the CMS so that the app can become available in more and more languages. Currently, some of the languages available include English, Nepali, Khmer, and Portuguese. Content in Amharic, French, Spanish, Tajik and Vietnamese will be added.
Parallel to this, we are of course continuing to develop additional content in multiple languages. We still have a few chapters of the initial 21 planned to develop, including Communication Disabilities, Hip Dysplasia, (Juvenile) Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psychiatry and Post-Polio Paralysis. We would therefore like to ask readers having experience in these topics to contact us, should you be interested in helping us develop one or more of these chapters. As with any chapters developed, we will continue to carry out field testing in order to improve them. We are also looking to see what tools can be integrated into the RehApp as plug-ins, as well as developing additional features and/or apps, such as a milestone tracker in collaboration with Roelie Wolting and CARITAS Cambodia.
Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude and thanks to two main funding partners, CARITAS Germany and Light for the World International, without whom the development of this new version of the RehApp would not have been possible.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns or questions.
The RehApp team
Dear stakeholders involved in the RehApp developments. Today, on World Disability Day, we would like to provide you with the tenth update on the RehApp. We hope that this day and the international actions taken to celebrate it will continue to contribute to a more egalitarian society, and wish the same for the RehApp.
In our last update, we informed you about the Content Management System (CMS) we were building to become more independent in our app development and content upload. Although this has been a long development, with this last year being spent almost entirely on this, we are finally nearing the end. The CMS is close to being ready, with all illustrations and English content having been uploaded. The RehApp team is currently busy finalising the flow for the new interactive part of the app, whereby the users (fieldworkers) will be able to add secured client files for monitoring purposes. Within the next couple of months, we will also be working closely with our various partners to upload their translations of the chapters into the CMS, so as to ensure that the RehApp 2.0 is not only available in English but also in French, Portuguese, Nepali, Tajik, Khmer, Vietnamese, Amharic, and many others upon its release.
In line with this, we have started working with CARITAS Cambodia (with funding from CARITAS Germany) this year on the development of specific chapters, primarily for Cambodian partners. English and Khmer e-learning materials on various subjects related to disability, development and rehabilitation, are also under development. Roelie Wolting, a long-time Enablement associate, plays a managerial role in these developments which are part of a larger digitisation process.
We have also been asked by Humanity & Inclusion to assist in the development of translations for several Afghan languages. The same applies to Myanmar, where Burmese translations will be carried out for several chapters as part of the ReLAB-HS programme in Myanmar.
As mentioned in the ninth newsletter, we have continued developing new content. Our chapters on Spina Bifida, Dementia, Albinism and Intellectual Disabilities have been drafted and are ready to be translated for piloting. Chapters on Epilepsy, Down Syndrome and Autism will soon follow. Again, should you readers have any interest in translating or piloting a specific chapter(s), do not hesitate to contact us!
Last but not least, we realise that research and evidence are highly necessary. For this, we plan on having a few partners pilot the new version of the app in February 2022, to gather anecdotes and feedback in preparation for the official RehApp 2.0 launch, which we expect to happen towards the end of the first quarter. This launch will involve our donors, partners and developers, in order to critically reflect on this development and discuss the next steps. Parallel to this, we also have several research projects in the pipeline, with TLM Nigeria and the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Sciences of the University of Jos in Nigeria, the Karuna Foundation in Nepal, Atma Jaya University in Indonesia, and Utrecht University and Global Health Inclusive for pilots in Bangladesh and India.
Although this has been an extensive and ambitious process, we are enthusiastic about the result and are eager to release the RehApp 2.0 for our partners to begin using it!
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns or questions.
The RehApp team
In the past year, COVID-19 has without a doubt, affected people around the world, including Nepal. Without fail, certain groups are still being disproportionately impacted. This is the case of vulnerable groups such as those with a disability, who continue to be left behind. With continued lack of access to essential services, imposed lockdowns and thus the inability to conduct home visits, people with disabilities and their caregivers are more than ever left to their own devices. Many persons with disabilities depend on support and services that have been put off and may not have got enough money to store food, medicines and other basic needs, and are thus being pushed towards greater vulnerability and poverty with their families. Because of this, Enablement-Nepal, with the support of Enablement Ltd. (Netherlands), is seeking to continue developing materials to support people with disabilities and their caregivers in their daily life whilst in the confinement of their home.
To help with the fundraiser, please visit the following link, share with your networks, and donate if you can.
Thank you in advance!
The Enablement and Enablement-Nepal teams.
Dear stakeholders involved in the RehApp developments. Herewith we would like to provide you with the ninth update on the RehApp.
In our last update, we informed you of the need to have a content management system (CMS) built, which would allow the Enablement team to directly upload content on the mobile application that is the RehApp, as well as for local partners to upload their translations. The form-making part of it is well underway, and we expect that it will be ready by the beginning of April. With this, we will be able to create the elements related to client files, including assessment, goal setting, planning for interventions and so on. After this, we will focus our efforts on upgrading the app design and finalising the CMS in order to add the content. We also wish to make the data inputted into the app relevant for management purposes of organisations, so that they may also get an overview of the people they are reaching and the success of their interventions. We believe this will also go a long way in ensuring that organisations in our partner countries truly take up the RehApp as part of their way of working, and thus safeguard its sustainability.
In the meantime, we have continued our efforts to develop RehApp content, in the form of flashcards. All available chapters are currently available in English and Portuguese and will soon also be ready in French and Tajik. As usual, you can keep an eye on this page of our website for new additions. Moreover, the chapters on Spina Bifida/Hydrocephalus, Dementia, Epilepsy, and Albinism will soon be released – in the aforementioned order – and are to be translated and piloted. The chapters on Autism, Down Syndrome and Intellectual Disabilities are in the process of being drafted. Should you, readers, have any interest in translating or piloting a specific chapter(s), do not hesitate to contact us!
Discussions related to evaluating the impact of the RehApp are still underway, although these have not been in the forefront due to lack of time and the difficulty in meeting face-to-face as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are, however, closely working with universities and students to continue developing RehApp content and conduct small-scale research projects on the needs in the field, pertaining to specific disabilities (i.e. dementia).
Finally, we are also very pleased to report that the RehApp has been presented at the Global Disability Health Forum in December 2020, as well as in February 2021 at the Zero Project Conference where it was also awarded. The positive attention and recognition of the RehApp encourage us to continue our efforts, in the hopes that we will soon be able to realise our dream of making information available to people with disabilities and their relatives who belong to the poorest 2 billion of this world.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns or questions!
The RehApp team
NEW free online course on COVID-19 rehabilitation
COVID-19 has created enormous surges of rehabilitation needs. These needs are present now, in our hospitals in critical care settings, in our recovery wards, and in our communities, and they will persist even once the pandemic is brought under control. At the same time, the pandemic has severely disrupted rehabilitation services – services that many people recovering from the virus will depend on.
Health workers and rehabilitation professionals need to be prepared to meet the growing rehabilitation needs of people recovering from COVID-19. To support this WHO, with input of international experts, has developed a 7-module course on rehabilitation as part of our free training series on the Clinical Management of COVID-19 in OpenWHO.org.
The free-to-access course introduces rehabilitation for people with COVID-19 including the key concepts of rehabilitation for the most common impairments associated to COVID-19. Each module lasts 20-30 minutes and learners have the opportunity to earn certificates for both completion and high achievement.
Updated WHO COVID-19 Clinical Management Guidance An additional resource on rehabilitation for people with COVID-19 is the latest version of WHO's COVID-19 Clinical Management: Living Guidance published on 25th January. Rehabilitation considerations are integrated across all phases of care, including in the new chapter "Care of COVID-19 patients after acute illness." In addition, Chapter 19 of the guide is dedicated exclusively to rehabilitation. |
Please share the link to the free rehabilitation course and COVID-19 Clinical Management: Living Guidance with your networks of health professionals.
For any additional information provided by WHO in relation to COVID-19 and rehabilitation please visit our website.
By working together, we can fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Disability, CBR and Inclusive Development aims to enhance knowledge in the field of disability and inclusive development, addressing the needs of practitioners in the field (particularly those from developing countries), policy makers, disabled persons’ organisations and the scientific community. The journal encourages publication of information that is evidence-based, to improve policy,current knowledge and programme implementation, and will be openly and freely accessible to all readers.
Huib Cornielje, executive director of Enablement, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development Journal since May 2020.
To read more about the journal and access some of its publications, visit this page!
The Zero Project presents its 82 Awardees 2021 on Employment and ICT. Three groups have been defined for Awardees in employment, defined by the background of the awarded organizations (Business Sector, Civil Society and Public Sector). Within each of the four groups, Awardees are sorted by country of implementation, contain a short description and a link to the organization. Factsheets and further information are currently being researched and written, and will be uploaded to www.zeroproject.org in January 2021.
The RehApp factsheet can be accessed here.
The RehApp is a free app that supports fieldworkers in low-income countries to provide effective rehabilitation services to people with disabilities. The app provides specialist information and options for interventions developed by more than 70 disability experts. In 2020 there were 200 users.
Are you an M&E Specialist who are leading and/or facilitating participatory M&E processes and wish to experience and understand Liberating Structures? ResultsinHealth Netherlands will be holding online Liberating Structures Immersion Workshop on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November 2020.
Liberating Structures (LS) are a set of simple, playful yet powerful approaches for group participation. LS put people at the center of the thinking process and help groups to progress on a wide range of challenges. These simple methods change how results are generated without expensive investments, complicated trainings, or modifications in formal structures. The force of LS lies in in the ability to explore challenges that are complex, messy, nonlinear, and uncertain.
This workshop will be an opportunity to experience and understand how LS productively and playfully disrupt conventional patterns of group discussion, meeting and workshop organization and practices. We dig into the LS repertoire to reveal the individual structures and underlying logic or organizing pattern that makes LS generative and dynamic.
For more information, visit https://resultsinhealth.org/trainings/liberating-structure-workshop!
The current coronavirus knows no boundaries and can affect everyone. Nevertheless, the way people can protect themselves and how they are affected by the effects of the virus varies greatly.
On an international level, current experience shows that persons with disabilities have been forgotten in many countries during this pandemic and that they had to call for attention to be considered.
This crisis exemplifies the shortcomings that exist in health care systems. Good health care is not available for many people, especially not for persons with disabilities – often with serious consequences. Even in rich countries they still experience disadvantages.
By having subscribed to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the states have committed themselves, in line with SDG 3, to ensure a healthy life for all and to promote everybody’s well-being.
How are persons with disabilities taken into account and how can health care systems change in a more inclusive way within the framework of universal health care so that no one is left behind?
What are the needs of children and women with disabilities or elderly persons and what is already happening to make global health care more inclusive?
Which requirements arise for a more inclusive implementation of SDG 3? These are questions that will be discussed and debated during the conference.
For the full programme, please download the document below!
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, Enablement developed tip sheets on four main topics for Light for the World with funding from the Austrian Development Cooperation:
- Eating and drinking
- Epilepsy, Nodding Syndrome and medication
- Active lifestyle
- Communication
Because many around the world are currently on lockdown or restricted in their ability to move around, information on essential topics can be difficult to find. With these tip sheets, we hope to support those working with and/or caring for children and adults with disabilities on important topics. The tip sheets include visuals and some supporting text.
The book of flip charts carries the same content as the tip sheets, with visuals on one side for the caregivers of people with disabilities to see, and slightly more elaborate text on the other page for the fieldworker.
To view and/or download these, click here!
The Leprosy Mission Myanmar (TLMM), BRAC, and Enablement worked together, also with private and public stakeholders and relevant government actors, to lower the barriers for households affected by disability in order for them to find meaningful employment and to protect and empower people who are affected by disability. As part of the project, Enablement and TLMM undertook activities concerning making marketplaces inclusive. During the last year of the project, one ‘champion, newly built marketplace’ has come to light. A review visit by the Enablement/TLMM team focussed on evaluating this marketplace as well as assessing several inaccessible marketplaces throughout Myanmar in order to develop tools to help stakeholders make the necessary adaptations or take the necessary requirements into consideration when building new ones. Stakeholders within this part of the project are people with disabilities, market committees and municipalities, and others with an interest in these tools.
This manual includes all the tools that were developed for, revised or created after the audit visit, based on experiences and information from the field. This was done by Enablement, in collaboration with TLMM and two students from the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. With this manual, we hope to ensure the sustainability of these tools to enable countries such as Myanmar to have inclusive marketplaces.
The handbook can be downloaded here!
During our involvement in the Economic Empowerment Project in Myanmar, we have been involved in accessibility audits of marketplaces and the development of a tool to give guidance on the different adaptations that make a marketplace more inclusive, as well as to help people understand why it is important to create inclusive marketplaces.
The flashcards contain six categories: entrance, pathways, displays, facilities, directions and rules and regulations. Every category has a few topics. Within the topics, two situations are described: the DO and the DON'T.
On each card is also specified what type of marketplace (e.g. new or existing) the adaptation is meant for.
The flashcards are freely available in English and are currently being translated into Burmese. For download, please visit our publications page!
For enquiries or any interest in translation, please consult info@enablement.nl.
This project will use lessons learned from a previous DFID-funded project, which piloted the development of an effective micro-finance model to be used within BRAC - a mainstream micro-finance organisation. This micro-finance model can then be rolled-out across the country as a permanent part of BRAC's micro-finance programme, promoting sustainability after the project has ended.
BRAC will use its vast experience in poverty reduction programming, in Bangladesh and around the world, to pilot the development of a new model appropriate for the context of Myanmar. BRAC will build on their experience in micro-finance, and adapted poverty reduction models to address the situation of people with disabilities in Myanmar from a skills-development, confidence-building and ultimately sustainable economic development perspective.
Through its work on poverty eradication, BRAC has elaborated on a 24-month pathway out of extreme poverty for those on the fringes of society who can’t normally access micro-finance. Through elaboration three main components have been identified as most effective:
These components are furthermore more effective in combination with health care via partnerships with other external organisations. With these assets, stipend, skill-building, and health care, these individuals and families can, first, meet their own most basic needs. With the meeting of these basic needs, they can begin to have dreams of starting their own business.
Randomised control trials revealed that 4 years after baseline, participants showed:
Learning from BRAC’s and other organisations’ pilots, some of the building blocks of these approaches will be adapted to consider the specific needs of people with disabilities and the reality of the markets in Myanmar.
For example, similar to 22 ultra poor households, people with disabilities will receive assets support, technical training on how to manage these assets, and periodic home visits to provide additional technical and business skills and track progress. A key is also the approach of the field staff to the participants who need special coaching and close monitoring. In this project, it is important that the field staff are sensitised to the rights, needs, and concerns of people with disabilities.
As a result of these interventions, after one year the targeted households are expected to see an increase in income, develop confidence and willingness to expand their business. Once these changes are visible among the participants they will be gradually included into the mainstream micro-finance for access to capital and business expansion.
Enablement worked with LMM to develop and pilot the development of adapted (farming) tools for people with disabilities in the agricultural sector. These tools make it easier for individuals with a variety of disabilities to be more productive when working in agricultural jobs and other income-generating activities.
A manual is created for the production and use of adapted tools. It contains practical information on necessary materials and simple building and adaptation instructions. All tools can be developed at low cost, to ensure sustainability and reproduction on a wide scale. The designs of the tools are derived from various existing sources, such as from AgrAbility and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
An example of how to make a farming tool, as described within the manual (Enablement, 2018):
The approach for increasing access to market places is largely based on efforts and lessons learned in a previous TLMM-led DFID-funded project, “Reducing the physical and social barriers faced by 2,000 people with disabilities in seven States and Regions in Myanmar and improving their livelihood opportunities.”
The previous project resulted in the removal of individual barriers, such as building bridges over small rivers, and ramps at a shallow gradient slope into marketplaces, and was well-received and made lives easier for people with disabilities.
From the previous project, we realised that greater funds should be invested in fewer locations. Then, those locations could be built to a high standard and used as an advocacy tool by bringing essential stakeholders, such as national, regional, and local government, NGO and community leaders, to see the model fully accessible marketplace. This can then influence policy, practice and developments elsewhere. TLMM and Enablement will work together to scale up implementing an additional fully inclusive market place, as well as intentionally and strategically using this market place as an advocacy tool to influence change.
However, developing a fully accessible market place and using it as an advocacy tool alone is not fully effective in the long-term.
Enablement
The team recognises that piloting the development of a fully accessible market place is a big step forward in removing barriers to employment for people with disabilities who are interested in working in agriculture (and buying and selling products). However, developing a fully accessible market place and using it as an advocacy tool alone is not fully effective in the long-term, as communities will need guidance on how to make their own market places accessible.
Therefore, we will also develop a market place inclusion handbook, to ensure the sustainability of these innovations and to ensure that these market places can influence widespread change across the country, and even internationally. These guidelines will incorporate the use of multi-modal communication to ensure accessibility for those with visual and hearing impairments, and those with low-literacy.
On top of all these developments, we are currently discussing the documentation (on film!) of the current barriers in accessibility to the market place and the transformation towards the model market place. We hope that in the future we can show this documentary and give insight in the obstacles that people with disabilities encounter in market places and what is needed to ensure inclusion for all.
JOB COACHING
Helping people with disabilities towards finding employment, with the help of Job Placement Coaches, trained by Enablement and TLMM
Thanks to our Job Placement Coaches (JPCs) in Myanmar people with a disability get a chance to find a job. JPCs are the link between people with disabilities (and their social network) seeking for a job and potential employers (and the co-workers). Their aim is to find a suitable match and establish a sustainable relationship between the different parties so that people with disabilities become employed.
To achieve this objective, the JPCs undertakes the following steps: I) assessment or intake; (II) sensitisation and/or advocacy; (III) matching and placement; and (IV) coaching and follow-up. These steps are reflected in the figure below, visualising the ultimate handshake when both the employer and the client are satisfied with the match. These steps are converted into a two-weeks training for JPCs, provided by Enablement in close collaboration with the Leprosy Mission Myanmar (TLMM). The objectives of the training were to:
In February 2018 a total of 15 JPCs have been trained. We expect them to be able to get about 35 people with disabilities employed within a period of 2 years. This would mean that about 525 people will receive support towards becoming employed.
In collaboration with NLR Nepal, MetaMeta and the Agriculture and Forestry University Nepal Enablement studies the physical and social barriers that lead to exclusion of people with physical disabilities to access water for agriculture, (water buffering) strategies that may lead to better access to and management of water for agriculture and ultimately if better crop production will lead to inclusion of people with physical disabilities.
For more information: read the introduction on the LRI website.
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes” (Morpheus, The Matrix, 1999).
Would you rather choose the option of believing what you want to believe, or see reality as it is with its ugliness, surprises, complexity and uncertainties? Personally, the blue pill sounds great to me as I like to define the world in my own terms and frames. It keeps things in control and I know what my part is in this world. I believe that many of us are like me and through our (often not so objective) studies and research projects we feel in control of the world around us.
Sometimes however, especially during times of reflection and meditation, I suddenly realize how powerless we are as human-beings in this extremely complicated world.
In our field of disability inclusion, especially when working with cultures and in countries other than our own, we like to contribute to the wellbeing of people with disabilities. From our good intentions and many efforts we try, amongst others, to understand how we can achieve inclusion. The CBR matrix with its five components of health, education, livelihood, social life and empowerment is a perfect example of how we do this. The CBR matrix helps us to understand in what aspects of life people with disability need to be included. As long as we take account for the 25 elements we will be able to enhance the wellbeing of people with a disability and their families, we think.
Although the CBR matrix provides us the tools to structure and manage our efforts, it traps us in this ‘blue pill world’ in which we want to see what we want to believe.
In our work with and for people with disabilities, we often encounter issues that do not fit the CBR matrix. What about the role of religion, the family structure, technological developments, alternative economic systems and maybe even - fear not - inclusion in sex, drugs and rock and roll? Surely some of you will raise your eyebrows when reading this, but truthfully, shouldn’t we be more open for this beautifully complex world in which we cannot define our lives nor put the lives of others into boxes?
You might think that expanding the matrix is the simple solution to make sure no aspect of life will be overlooked. Yet, Morpheus rightfully remarks ‘No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.’
If we seek inclusion and are willing to understand the lives of others, we should realize that life is a Wonderland and entails countless flavours, colours, and preferences. Although structures help us to give meaning to the world, these structures are meant to serve us and not the other way round. If we want to understand the needs and preferences of people with a disability we need choose ‘the red pill’ and to be open to everything that comes our way.
During our involvement in the one-year Diploma Course in CBR at the UNTL in Timor-Leste students asked us for a practical tool that they could use when going into the field. They expressed the need for a tool that allowed them not only to identify certain types of disabilities, but also to communicate the medical and practical implications with the people involved, often parents. We designed a series of pocket cards on 14 common impairments. The cards give a brief medical description, suggestions for basic interventions and leave room for referral addresses.
The flashcards are freely available in English, French, Tetun (Timor-Leste) and Amharic (Ethiopia) and will be provided on request.
For enquiries, please consult info@enablement.nl.
The project summary from DaNa can be accessed here.
Funding to improve economic opportunities for people with disabilities launched in Myanmar The Leprosy Mission Myanmar and the DaNa Facility to work together to improve economic opportunities for people with disabilities in Bago, Mandalay, and Yangon. Taungoo, Myanmar: The Leprosy Mission Myanmar (TLMM) and the DaNa Facility have signed a 2 and a half year matched grant agreement as part of a UK Government Department for International Development (DFID) funded programme to improve the economic opportunities for around 1,000 people with disabilities and people affected by leprosy living in the Bago, Mandalay, and Yangon regions. Dr. Zaw Moe Aung, TLMM Country Leader, said, "It is exciting to begin working on this project with support from DFID especially as it builds on and scales up past interventions. We are excited to help people with disability and people affected by leprosy obtain equitable access to micro-finance and employment in different sectors, including agriculture. With this project, we hope to contribute to realising the effective implementation of the 2015 Law on the Rights of Persons with Disability in Myanmar!" Speaking on the announcement Dr Gail Marzetti, Head of DFID Burma, said, "It's an honour to be supporting this truly innovative Leprosy Mission Myanmar project through the matched funding that the DaNa Facility is providing. The work TLMM is undertaking providing training, education and introducing innovative micro-finance products and inclusive agricultural practices for people with disabilities is pioneering work. She added: "Improving the lives and economic opportunities of people with disabilities is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do, because when you make sure that everybody in a country can realise their full potential you make sure that your country and its economy can start to realise its full potential as well." People with disabilities and people affected by leprosy in Myanmar face many physical, attitudinal, communication, and institutional barriers, which result in significantly less opportunities for economic empowerment, even more so than other marginalised groups who do not face disability. This innovative project has three main components: removing barriers to employment for people with disabilities in both rural and urban communities; removing barriers to access to micro-finance for people with disabilities; and removing barriers to buying and selling at marketplaces for people with disabilities. Increasing accessibility in these three arenas is groundbreaking in Myanmar, and this project will establish, for the first time, good practices and tools that will enable other groups and micro-finance organisations to roll out inclusive practices within their own operations and communities here in Myanmar. An additional focus in this pioneering project will be placed on assisting women affected by disability and leprosy, either as a mother of a child with a disability or leprosy, or as a person with a disability herself. ENDS For more information, please contact Dr. Zaw Moe Aung, Country Leader: zmaung@tlmmyanmar.org About TLMM: TLMM is a non-profit organisation that has been in operation in Myanmar for over 100 years. Its mission is to create a barrier free Myanmar for people with disabilities and people affected by leprosy, focusing on providing holistic support to people affected by leprosy and disability as part of an inclusive approach to development. The key implementing component for disability rehabilitation are the Disability Resource Centres (DRCs) that are placed in 7 States and Regions throughout Myanmar, which provide a local resource base for people with disabilities and people affected by leprosy to access rehabilitation. About BRAC: BRAC is the largest and most successful Southern development organisation, and has unique experience of bringing solutions to development challenges to scale in Bangladesh. Our mission internationally is to adapt these solutions to address challenges in other developing countries. BRAC is currently operating in eleven countries across Asia and Africa. In Myanmar, BRAC operates a micro-finance plus approach and, so far, $18.17 million has been disbursed to over 40,000 women with an average loan size of $255. BRAC Myanmar, MFI has 35 branch offices and it will supply collateral-free micro loans to farmers and small enterprises (specifically to people with disabilities identified by TLMM). About Enablement: Enablement is a well-known not-for-profit agency in the field of disability and development based in The Netherlands. Enablement is known for its expertise in the field of capacity building in especially Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) – “a multi-sectoral strategy that empowers persons with disabilities to access and benefit from education, employment, health and social services. CBR is implemented through the combined efforts of people with disabilities, their families and communities, and relevant government and non-government health, education, vocational, social and other services” (WHO, ILO, UNICEF, IDDC). CBR is Enablement’s preferred strategy to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and Enablement promotes CBR through innovative training, evaluation, research and development. Enablement constantly tries to bridge the gap between academic and government bodies and grassroots practitioners. Enablement has expertise in providing courses in disability, inclusive development, training of trainers and lobby and advocacy, in a variety of countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. About the DaNa Facility: The DaNa Facility is a UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded 4.5-year programme, established in May 2016 as one of three components of DFID’s wider ‘Business for Shared Prosperity’ (BSP) programme. The DaNa Facility, implemented by DAI Europe and KPMG, supports inclusive economic growth and private sector development in Myanmar through responsible and sustainable business growth, investment and trade.
Huib Cornielje is in the Philippines from July 1 to 15 to evaluate a number of CBR programmes for the Liliane Foundation.
On January 23rd 2018, Kiran Wagle (Foundation Enablement Nepal) and Saroj Yakami (MetaMeta) discuss challenges and solutions on disability in Nepal’s agriculture.
People with disabilities including those who adopted disabilities due to Leprosy are often discriminated and excluded from society. They lack access to socioeconomic development initiatives and decision-making processes. There is lack of enabling environment and tools to facilitate them to live a self-supporting, dignified life.
The most vulnerable people are often the first to be excluded from access to water, land and essential information about agricultural water management. Apart from social barriers, physical and environmental barriers exclude persons with disabilities from access to water, and hinder their socioeconomic empowerment, participation and inclusion.
In Nepal, this only compounds the barriers to access to water resources in the form of geopolitical factors and precipitation pattern (3-4 months of precipitation in a year). The need of water buffering to ensure a sustained supply for most of the year is a crucial aspect for sustainable (agriculture) water management.
Another big challenge in agriculture is youth migration from rural areas creating pressure on those who stays behind and increasing their vulnerability. Those left behind are mostly female, Persons with Disabilities (PwDs- including older people) who face increased difficulties working in their field and thus fall deeper into poverty.
Increasing options and opportunities available to persons with disabilities can improve their participation in economic and livelihood schemes. Agriculture is the main contributor to national GDP and highest self/employment in Nepal. A more inclusive agricultural sector and related enterprises can improve the participation, empowerment, inclusion and quality of life of PwDs in Nepal.
The project is being implemented by Enablement Nepal, Enablement Netherlands, MetaMeta, Agriculture and Forestry University-Nepal, and Netherlands Leprosy Relief. The project has been supported by Leprosy Research Initiative (LRI).
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