412 chapter 45
POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS OF REHABILITATION
CENTERS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS
Sub-centers in
neighboring
villages
• parent meetings,
mutual assistance
and shared child care
between families of
disabled
• playground for all
children (disabled and
non-disabled)
• group action to get
disabled children into
school
• special group
activities for children
who cannot attend
normal school
• community awareness
raising activities:
–– skits
–– CHILD-to-child
–– involving school-
children and
villagers in
building playground,
improving
accessibility,
making toys and
equipment
• organized (group)
visits to the village
rehabilitation
center in the
neighboring village
• educational and
preventive activities
• perhaps one or
more ‘village
rehabilitation
assistants’ to help
with basic therapy
and rehabilitation,
under guidance from
rehabilitation workers
from the village
rehabilitation center
VILLAGE REHABILITATION CENTER
(serving children and their
families from a group of
villages)
• all of the activities listed for
the sub-centers. And also:
• family and small group training in basic
care, therapy, and development of disabled
children (guidelines and advice)
• workshop for making and repairing (and
teaching families how to make and repair)
orthopedic and rehabilitation aids including:
–– braces
–– wheelchairs
–– crutches
–– artificial limbs
–– walkers
–– special footwear
–– special seating
–– therapy aids
• non-surgical orthopedic procedures
(straightening joints with series of casts,
etc.)
• arrangements within village to provide room
and board for visiting disabled children and
family members from neighboring villages.
This may include:
–– village families who are willing to take
in visiting families at low cost
–– a ‘model home’ where visiting families can
stay, equipped with low-cost adaptations
and equipment for better function and self-
care by the disabled
–– coordination, informal training,
visits and advice to parent groups or
subprograms in neighboring villages
• workshops and/or agricultural projects
where disabled youth can learn income-
producing skills to bring in some income to
the program or family
• prevention campaigns, for example:
–– vaccination against polio and childhood
diseases, with special focus on
underserved families and communities
–– education campaign against overuse and
misuse of injections
• activities to involve and include as much
of the community as possible (adults and
children) in the program; possibly,
–– help with therapy
–– help with play and entertainment
–– accompany disabled children on outings,
help them get to school, etc.
–– village support committee
–– a toy-making workshop where village
children make toys for disabled children
and also for their little brothers and sisters
• ‘outreach’ to help start neighboring sub-centers,
with provision of training, backup referral
services, and regular visits
Urban orthopedic
and rehabilitation
referral centers,
and outside
specialists
• referral services for:
orthopedic evaluation,
advice and surgery as
needed (at low or no
cost)
• orthopedic and
rehabilitation
equipment too
complicated to be
made at village level
• periodic visits
by orthopedic
surgeons to village
rehabilitation center
to evaluate possible
surgical needs of
selected children
• short teaching visits
(3 days to 1 month)
by visiting specialists
(physical therapists,
occupational
therapists, special
teachers, brace
makers, limb makers,
rehabilitation
engineers, etc.) to
teach and advise
the village team.
(It is important
that such visitors
play a secondary,
background role
and not be present
all the time, nor
take charge or work
independently with
children.)
• apprenticeship
opportunities:
learning for village
workers in the
centers of the
different specialists
Disabled village Children