Disability Training for Community Based Rehabilitation in low resource settings

A Six-day (16th September to 21st September) training was organized by Samphia Foundation in partnership with MAITS (UK) Multi-Agency International Training and Support and Noor Foundation at The Regional Hospital, Kullu.

30 Participants which included Special Educators, Physiotherapist, Speech Therapy Assistants, Social Workers, Psychologist and parents of children with special needs participated in this traning.

Dr. Shabnam Rangwala (Occupational Therapist) and Bisma Dafadar (Speech-Language and Audiologist) were the MAITS master trainers who were the main facilitators of the training.

A Hindi Manual on Disability Management in low resource setting was launched by Dr Shushil Chand, CMO Kullu. The Hindi translation was sponsored by CHAI (Canadian Himalayan Association for Innovation) in association with Aash Child Development Center. It is for the 1st time the Hindi Manual is launched in India which will be freely available for parents to refer to.

Inclusion is the larger vision of Samphia Foundation, this time we included the Kullu Police Department. Certificates were given on the last day by DSP Kullu Mr. Shakti to all participants with a message that all the learning should be utilized on the ground level. Kullu Police also committed to joining hands with Aash to bring about Disability Awareness in the community.

The idea of Community-Based Rehabilitation is simple, in a low resource setting where there is a shortage of health care professionals, we train the local community in basic rehabilitation and disability management.

We are hopeful the new cader of trainees will help reach every child who is in the need for therapy in the remotest part of our mountain towns.

Community-Based Rehabilitation is fundamentally more empowering and its democratization of medical knowledge and power.