512 chapter 54
TRAINING
The integrated approach
When possible, it is usually best that skills training for disabled persons take place
together with skills training for non-disabled persons. For example:
• A disabled girl can go to the river to learn to wash clothes with other girls and
their mothers.
• A disabled boy can go to the fields to help plant, weed, and harvest alongside his
able-bodied brothers, sisters, and father.
• A disabled child can go to the same school as other children, and then go on to
some specialized training course.
• A disabled young man or woman may enter a shop or production team as an
apprentice just as non-disabled young persons often do.
For a mildly or moderately disabled child, there are many possibilities to prepare
for life’s work together with non-disabled children—especially if parents encourage
the child and explore opportunities. A community rehabilitation program can help
by encouraging schoolteachers, schoolchildren, training program instructors, crafts-
persons, and possible employers to be more open to giving disabled young people an
equal chance.
For more severely disabled young people, opportunities for integrated education or
skills training will be much more limited. Alternatives need to be looked for, or arranged,
especially in communities that are still not open to giving them an equal chance.
Special training possibilities
Different approaches have been tried to
help disabled persons learn specific skills. In
cities, special training centers are sometimes
set up for children with similar disabilities.
These include programs for deaf children,
centers for mentally slow young persons,
and programs for blind children. Each
program chooses skills and activities suited
to the particular limitations and abilities of
the group. For example, a skills training and
production program for the blind may focus
on skills that depend largely on touch, such
as weaving or chalk making.
In smaller villages, it is often not possible
to bring together enough persons with the
same kind of disability to create a specialized
training program just for them. However,
a community rehabilitation program can,
in its workshop, include a variety of skills
training opportunities which can be adapted
to persons with a wide range of
disabilities.
This young man in Niger, Africa, learned
to make leather goods together with other
disabled young people. Later he can work
out of his own home and sell his goods in
the marketplace. (Photo: Carolyn Watson)
Disabled village Children