POPULAR THEATER
The health workers are concerned: “So
many disabled children come to us. Most of
them don’t need hospitalization or surgery,
but simpler things like braces or special
exercises. Yet we don’t have the knowledge
or skills to provide these things for them. Why
don’t we try to get more training and start a
rehabilitation program for disabled children
here in our village? We can focus on what
parents can do for their children in the home.”
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The health workers meet with villagers to
discuss the new program. The villagers
respond enthusiastically. Men offer to help
fix up the center. Women offer to provide
room and food for visiting children and their
families. And the schoolchildren offer to
help build a rehabilitation playground—on
condition that they can play there too.
The schoolchildren—who had already built
the actual ‘playground for all children’ in the
village—quickly rebuild the playground on
stage.
Because they had already dug the holes for
the poles, and had practiced over and over
again, they were able to set up the playground
on stage in about 3 minutes.
In this way villagers have a chance to see
how different equipment in the playground
is used—like this ‘rocker board’ to help
children with balance problems, and the
sitting frame to help a child with spasticity
keep his legs apart while he plays with
homemade educational toys.
disabled village children