Dear Reader,

Welcome to our first bi-annual newsletter and as always, I would like to thank you for your consistent support.

It is obvious, by way of how we are being encouraged to take a closer look at our publications in terms of their role to put forward our work with growing efficacy that you have been our greatest contributor so far. Your suggestions have been one of the strongest driving forces in the development of our communication and outreach materials.

Home Based Education - Facilitating inclusion of children with severe and profound disabilities into mainstream schools

Home based education (HBE) simply means providing educational support to children with severe and profound disabilities within their homes. LCD supported Cheshire programme in Coorg (CHIC) is working in remote areas of Coorg district (India) to ensure inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools. Till date, the programme has helped retain 273 disabled children in mainstream schools due to its interventions.

Need for Inclusive Transport - Access and Mobility issues faced by People with disabilities and the Elderly

Transport is defined as movement of people and goods from one place to another. Today, transport plays a major role in economic and social development of a community. Communities having no transport infrastructure are often isolated from the world and thus, tend to be poor.

To encourage self-help and advocacy among persons with disabilities, LCD supported programmes in South Asia are promoting self help groups (SHGs) of persons with disabilities and their family members. These SHGs act as a focal point for micro-advocacy on disability rights and experience sharing among members.

One of the SHGs in Kothapatnam village of Prakasam district undertook a unique initiative with support from LCD-SARO project in the area. 12 members from the group came together and started a Disability Resource Centre to provide services to persons with disabilities in nearby areas.

Tamir Cheshire Community Programme (TCCP) staff were identifying disabled people through a community survey in remote villages of Faisalabad district. On enquiry, community people referred them to Muhammad's house, a 12-year old boy with locomotor disability.

In the very first meeting, the staff found that Muhammad liked going to school, but had dropped out as his classmates teased him regularly. His parents also expressed that Muhammad found it difficult to walk to the school. They had almost given up on his education.

Based on this initial meeting, the staff decided that through basic therapy and school sensitisation, Muhammad's problems could be solved, and he could continue his education. They encouraged his parents to support Muhammad and requested them to visit the TCCP resource centre for physiotherapy.

In this six-month period (January to June), SARO team has been actively involved in providing capacity building and technical support to partner organisations as detailed below -

• SARO staff (Programme Manager, Advocacy & Campaigns Manager) visited Dhaka Cheshire Home in Bangladesh. They also provided technical inputs on programme development to 15 partners of Centre for Disability in Development (CDD), who are implementing the DFID funded inclusive education programme of LCD in Bangladesh.

I am Hasini Sadunika. Though I am five years old, I can't walk and talk like other children of my age. I live with my mother and grandmother who love me a lot. I have never seen my father as he left us soon after I was born. My mother stays at home and looks after me, while my grandmother manages our small shop (grocery store).

To demonstrate interventions taken up by LCD-South Asia Office and the impact of their work, we are regularly tracking the case story of “Esaruddin and his family”. This family has been identified by a SARO supported programme in Bangladesh.

LCD-SARO has partnered with Centre for Disability in Development (CDD), a disability organisation in Bangladesh, to implement a programme on Inclusive Education and Employment Rights of persons with disabilities. CDD has chosen local partners to support them in implementation of this programme; one among them is Gono Unnayan Kendra (GUK), a community development organisation working in remote, backward and disaster prone areas of Gaibandha district.

In this issue, we bring you a rating tool for assessing the performance of self help groups (SHGs). The tool is specifically designed for disability NGOs having self help groups of disabled persons and their family members. These SHGs are not only involved in savings/credit activities but are also actively involved in advocacy. The check list given below will help assess each SHG's performance in a simple, but effective manner. The assessment is generally done for groups which are more than a year old.

Our Vision, Mission and Values

Our vision
A society in which every disabled person can enjoy their rights and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential

Our mission
To enable disabled people to improve their quality of life and to campaign for the removal of the barriers which hinder them

Our values

Valuing the Individual - Taking the time to listen to each disabled person and to understand what matters to them

Working together - Finding our success in the achievement of each disabled person with whom we work

Honesty - Generating trust with each of our stakeholders by being clear about what we can and cannot do and by delivering on our promises

Creativity - Developing imaginative new products, moving into new fields and seeing new ways of working so that we can serve disabled people more effectively

Energy - Being ambitious in the goals we set and committing ourselves to their achievement
 

Dear Reader,

I would, before anything else, like to thank you for your inputs and suggestions which have greatly helped us build a wider readership base than before.

With the closing of the financial term, there is much clutter of paperwork at this time of the year. However, there is much to share as you will see in the following pages. Having started the year on spirited heels, we are making good progress, finding newer areas of work and opportunities to express our mission.

In this issue, we have highlighted the case of earthquake affected district of Manshera (North West Frontier Province, Pakistan) as 'best practice'. With over 313 beneficiaries across 20 villages, the Disability Resource Centre (DRC) - set up by Leonard Cheshire Disability in partnership with Community Appraisal and Motivation Program (CAMP) - is already the foremost disability-related organization in the region.

Originally for work,  I  have  visited  India  very regularly  during the last  twenty  years, and  gained  the strong impression that people with disabilities have a much harder time there than in Britain.   And this is not just a question of money.  Even in a booming city such as Bangalore in the south, a highly competitive society means that many people have a hard life, such as can hardly be imagined by us here.

All over the world, the role of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in imparting education to disabled children cannot be undermined. In India, both the government and the NGOs work in close partnership to facilitate Inclusive Education. The NGOs are actively involved in creating awareness, mobilising resources, encouraging community participation and in-actual delivery of support and services to disabled children.

LEGAL COMPLIANCE

It is essential for Non Government Organisations (NGOs) to be transparent and accountable while dealing with funds received from the government and donor agencies. Here is a checklist of various legal formalities that NGOs (especially those based in India) should follow to achieve total transparency and accountability. 

Supporting People with Disabilities in the earthquake affected district of Mansehra, Pakistan (North West Frontier Province)

Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) is working to support children and persons with disabilities affected in the devastating earthquake of October 8, 2005, in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. The earthquake left around 87,000 people dead, 2.8 million without shelter and over a million without any income. Many people were also disabled in the disaster.

“No one used to care for us, but today, we are financially independent and respected in the society”  says Shiv Prasad, a member of Jagriti SHG in Mograram village of Sehore district. This change began in April 2008, when staff from ARUSHI, a disability programme supported by Leonard Cheshire Disability, visited the village and conducted an awareness programme on disability rights. 15 disabled people attended the programme, where, the concept of a self help group (SHG) was introduced and the activities of an SHG were explained. Following the programme, six disabled people came forward to form a SHG.

In this quarter, SARO hosted an International Conference on Disability in the Commonwealth Asia. Details of this conference and some other key highlights are given below -

To demonstrate interventions taken up by LCD-South Asia Office and the impact of their work, we are regularly tracking the case story of “Esar Uddin and his family”. This family has been identified by a SARO supported programme in Bangladesh.

“Earlier, to cast my vote, people would carry me into the polling station and I would then request them to stamp the ballot paper on my behalf. Today, however, for the first time in many years, I could enter the polling station and cast a vote on my own”, says Amarasena Jayaweera, 63, a person affected with paralysis 13 years ago.

People with disabilities in developing countries often face acute barriers than those in developed ones. Within developing countries, people living in rural and remote areas are the ones who are the most affected. One such area is that of Skardu district, in Baltistan division of Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) of Pakistan.

My name is Lata Salvi. I'm 22 years old. I have 3 sisters, two of whom are working, while the youngest is still in school. We live in a small house in one of the poorest areas of Mumbai. I have never been to school as I'm usually sick. (cerebral palsy, mental retardation and cancer). I stay at home the whole day and used to get bored.

The group leader, Prabhudas, says “Earlier no one cared for us, but today they respect us in the community. We have been successful in lobbying with government officials to issue job cards for people with disabilities under the government's 100 days work scheme. As a result, six of our members are currently employed under this scheme. In the future, we plan to promote another self help group of persons with disabilities in our village.”

Badri is now a role model for other people with disabilities. He says “I am going to guide youth with disabilities to be financially independent so they can live a decent life.”

People with disabilities have been totally neglected by the government in the relief operations. Some international development organisations have reached out to persons with disabilities as part of their relief operations, but, none of them were exclusively catering to this vulnerable group.

Many persons with disabilities were searching for their family members lost in the commotion following the floods.  On a day-to-day basis, they were struggling to access food, water and health services. The inaccessible toilets in the relief camps added to their woes. Some of them slept in the open air in damp conditions without blankets.

To demonstrate interventions taken up by LCD-South Asia Office and the impact of our work we are regularly tracking the case story of “Esar Uddin and his family”. This family has been recently identified as clients by a SARO supported programme.

LCD-SARO has partnered with Centre for Disability in Development (CDD), a disability organisation in Bangladesh, to implement a programme on Inclusive Education and Employment Rights of Persons with Disabilities. CDD has chosen local partners to support them in implementation of this programme; one among them is Gono Unnayan Sangstha (GUK), a community development organisation working in remote, backward and disaster prone areas of Gaibandha district.

All these tools and use of appropriate processes of PRA makes PRA a fun and an involving method of approaching a community in your programme. It is an effective tool to make your programme effective and useful to all stakeholders.