Community Services: Independent Living

D. Community Services: Independent Living

1. Breaking Barriers for Children and Empowerment of Disabled People’s Organizations

Sector: Community services

Goal: Functional independence

KIPA Focus:

Access, knowledge, and participation

Country: Philippines

Participating Agencies:

KAMPI, Danish Society of Polio and Accident Victims

(PTU)

Beneficiaries:

Children with disabilities

30. Background: The Breaking Barriers-Philippines (BBP) project (1995–1998), a partnership of KAMPI—the national federation of organizations of people with disabilities in the Philippines—and PTU, was the first project of its kind in the Philippines. It was a pioneering effort by people with disabilities aimed at addressing the rehabilitation needs of children with disabilities.

31. Strategy: People with disabilities were involved in the planning, conceptualization, and administration of BBP. They recruited, screened, and selected nondisabled professionals who provided the specific technical expertise to run the project. The Danish International Development Agency provided the funds through PTU.

32. Outputs: Five stimulation and therapeutic activity centers (STACs) were established in five pilot regions. The project overshot its goal of providing services to 1,000 beneficiaries by at least 50%. Beneficiaries received free rehabilitation services, school placement services, and referrals to other facilities. Other achievements included awareness campaigns on disability; policy research and formulation, and advocacy in the areas of employment, accessibility, health care, legislation, and education; concepts and action plans on integrating disabled children and young adults in mainstream services; devices and technical aids to beneficiaries in need; generating support from local government units that took over the operation of STACs after the project ended; and livelihood skills training and small capital grants to augment the often limited income of parents of disabled children. The STACs were accredited as government partners in the provision of rehabilitation and other services. Some 25 colleges and universities in the Philippines have designated the STACs as training facilities, which has augmented STACs’ personnel and generated revenue through donations from student interns.

33. Results: Knowledge. BBP led to a further project, Breaking Barriers for Children (BBC), 1998–2003, which added more features and components to make the services for children with disabilities much more comprehensive and sustainable. It has succeeded in fostering awareness and nurturing the goodwill and social-civic mindedness of communities and citizens at large. Access. By the end of 2001, the BBC had served more than 7,000 children with disabilities and there are now 60 CBR centers. Participation. BBP and BBC have demonstrated how people with disabilities from a donor country like Denmark can be instrumental in supporting efforts of their counterparts in a developing country like the Philippines, to break barriers and stereotypes and become catalysts of change for their own development.

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2. Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity

Sector:

Employment/labor

Goals:

Technical and functional independence and environmental awareness

KIPA Focus:

Knowledge, participation, and access

Country: Bangladesh Participating Agencies: 38 Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity (BPKS)

Beneficiaries:

All persons with disabilities, their families, communities, local authorities, professional groups, national institutions

34. Background: There are an estimated 13 million disabled people in Bangladesh and they are overwhelmingly poor. There is an urgent need for basic support services, and for greater acceptance of these people in the general community, to enable them to participate in the mainstream development process. BPKS was established as an NGO in 1985 by the current Executive Director, Md Abdus Sattar Dulal, whose own disability was the impetus behind creating BPKS. BPKS designed a development and rights- based program, Persons with Disabilities’ Self-Initiative to Development (PSID). Under this program, persons with disabilities are directly involved in the planning, decision making, implementation, management, and ownership of the program and related activities, from the local to national level. Economic empowerment is a major focus of PSID.

35. Goals: The two goals of BPKS are to ensure the equal rights, opportunities, and participation for all people with disabilities in the mainstream development process, and to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against them.

36. Strategies: Under the PSID program, persons with disabilities become members of PSID units at the grassroots level. A baseline survey is conducted to establish the range of disabilities in the area. Once an area is chosen, BPKS establishes an office as

a focal point from which to provide the following services:

(i) training to develop the skills of local people, such as home-based therapy, production and maintenance of devices, health referral services, and information on prevention;

(ii) enrollment of children in mainstream education, after talks with families and education authorities. BPKS offers training for teachers to learn teaching methods for disabled children and also offers incentives for schools to install ramps, adapt materials, and provide nutritious food;

(iii) creating a safe and accessible environment by installing appropriate latrines and tube wells, and teaching better hygiene and safety practices;

(iv) facilitating economic opportunities for people with disabilities through a weekly savings program, skills training, job placement services, access to local financial institutions, and loan support from BPKS; and

bpks@citechco.net, bpkspm@agni.com

Appendix 7 99

(v) advocacy and coordination services at the local and national level through committees and by lobbying national and international organizations.

37. Output: Twelve disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) were established during 1996–2003. At present there are 7,840 disabled members in Bangladesh. Funds are being used for income-generation activities and the further development of local organizations. More than 48,000 people with disabilities have directly benefited from BPKS’s services.

38. Results: Behavioral change and empowerment. People with disabilities are becoming more confident and are attaining the skills they require to fully participate in the community. This is resulting in greater opportunities for education, employment, and leisure activities. The positive changes in thinking, attitudes, and practices in communities also pave the way for integration of these people into mainstream community life and further encourage them to improve the quality of their own lives with information and technical support from DPOs. Sustainability of organizations. PSID develops self-sustaining local organizations by and for people with disabilities.