Rehabilitation for 50 Children with Disabilities

Greetings from Nepal! We have raised US $20,536 from 140 donors till now through GlobalGiving. Your continuous support and good wishes motivate us to strive continuously to bring changes in the life of children with disabilities. We hope with your support we can still do more in future.

This time we are going to report about importance of rehabilitation services like physiotherapy to improve movement and function in children with physical disabilities. Sita (name changed), aged 6 years has spastic cerebral palsy. She is the only daughter of her parents. Her parents are permanent resident of Bhedpu, Dolakha. She was born on June 3, 2012. She has been coming to Patan CBR regularly for four years. Her father works in a workshop where they make statues of metal. The mother already left the studies and stays at home. Their family comes from a poor socio economic background.

When the mother was pregnant with Sita, she was just 15 years old. The child was in inverted position before birth. So doctors had to do a surgery for delivery. After delivery, Sita was admitted in neonatal intensive care unit for 15 days. She was just 1 kg and 600 gm at birth. As she grew up, she was not able to roll from supine to side lying and she could not speak even a word. She used to lie all day. Her physical growth also was not good. Her left hand seem to have deformity and she won't use it at all.So they took her to Kanti Children's Hospital. At the hospital, counselling was done about the condition of child by doctors and parents were advised to do regular physiotherapy. Sita was also taken to another hospital at Banepa where they said she has cerebral palsy and needs regular physiotherapy.

When Sita was 2 years old, they were temporarily residing in Imadole, Lalitpur and one child with disability from their neighborhood used to come to Patan CBR regularly. The mother of the child told about the centre to the parents of Sita. Since then, Sita is coming to Patan CBR regularly. After Sita came to Patan CBR, her condition was assessed by the physiotherapist and a treatment plan was made. The physiotherapist gave stretching, strengthening exercise, exercises to improve neck control and trunk control. Activities were designed to improve balance and coordination in sitting and encourage movement of both hands. She also gets to learn through resource classroom. She is also getting day care facilities.

The physiotherapist says "Sita is very cooperative with the exercise regimes and we try to motivate the child by incorporating play therapy into physiotherapy sessions whenever possible." The aunt is very happy with the improvement in the child and shares" Before my child came to Patan CBR, she could only lie whole day. She couldn't sit or move. Now she can sit from lying position independently. She is able to hold into sitting position for 5 minutes continuously on her own. Her neck control has improved. She can reach to the things in her both sides while sitting with very less support. Now she can eat with spoon by left hand. She uses left hand to catch things. She also draws circles on paper. The right hand has deformity and mostly she won't use it in daily activities. However she uses it for balancing while sitting by weight bearing through both hands. Nowadays, she moves here and there by dragging her buttock. Her speech has improved. The slurred speech is getting clearer and she is able to speak many words. She is active socially and likes to communicate with everybody."

She further says "Patan CBR has brought life changing improvement in my child and I am very happy that in spite of being economically disadvantaged we are supported by services of Patan CBR. We are very hopeful about Sita's future."Patan CBR has been able to continue its services only because of your support. We want to express heartfelt thanks for this to all of you.

Greetings from Nepal! We have raised US $18,963 from 136 donors till now through GlobalGiving. Thank you so much for your donations and good wishes. Thank you for bringing positive changes in the lives of children with disabilities in Nepal.  We are   very happy to inform you that we are participating in the International Youth Week campaign organized by GlobalGiving starting on Monday, Aug. 6.New recurring donations made during Youth Week will be matched and we can also win a bonus prize. The Youth Week ends on Sunday, Aug. 12. We request our all well-wishers to give maximum support for successful performance in the campaign.

This time we are going to report about vocational skill empowerment training held at patan CBR.It was held  on June, 2018 for 6 days. The number of total participants were twelve. Six Youth with Disabilities (YwD) and six parents of Children with Disabilities (CwD), Youth with Disabilities (YwD) actively participated in the training program. The program was conducted under Vocational skill empowerment project financed by Lions Club of Kathmandu Harati Mata, Kathmandu and Lions Club International. The participants were trained to make different accessories of bead like bangles, earrings, necklace, bracelet and lockets. They also learned to make different sizes of candles and how to do packaging for the candles made. After the completion of training parents of CwD, YwD and Youth with Disabilities will be able to produce items like candles, accessories of bead in their household and   sell the products to be financially self – sufficient.

A marketing unit has also been established with four staffs of Patan CBR. They will promote the sales of the product by marketing to prospective vendors. On achieving sales target of Rs 4000 per month, each one   will receive Rs 1500 per month as sales commission. Parents will also be included in the marketing team.

Patan CBR has been providing vocational training to parents and Youth with disabilities from very long time. It has also promoted the sales of the products made by them through opening of products outlet as well as   marketing to the people within the network e.g. different organizations have ordered for envelopes and candles.

 Lions Club of Kathmandu Haratimata has been continuously supporting Patan CBR in this endeavor since 2008. Patan CBR has focused on the vocational training for empowering skills of youth with disabilities which has supported their livelihood through self-employment, self-dependent economic activities and expose their potentialities into the general workplace environment ensuring a step towards self-sustainability of the beneficiaries.

A closing program was held at the last day of training.  In the program, Lions Club of Kathmandu Harati Mata, Kathmandu had committed to use the envelopes made by YwD of Patan CBR for their daily official work. Previously also they had ordered   envelopes. The rose candles also made by YwD will be used as token of love to   be given to delegates during their formal program. The certificate of training   completion was awarded to all participants. There was also display of the products made in the training in the same occasion.

 In the same closing program, products made through Bettys Nepal Help Project were also displayed. Bettys Nepal Help Project has been supporting Patan CBR from very long time. Under Bettys Nepal Help Project, training has been given to Parents and Youth with Disabilities to make different shapes of candles using locally available materials like bamboo, glass, egg shell. Dye is used to make the products colorful. Floating candles, Christmas candles are also made through the project which are more popular abroad to be used as decoration piece.

Bettys Nepal Help products have been put into display for sale at a souvenir shop in Mangal Bazar, Patan, Nepal. Some products have been taken to Austria by the project. The products were displayed in Austria to promote marketing.

Problems faced

• Some people are not so interested to buy products produced by Youth with Disabilities. It is due to cultural beliefs of people who think disability is due to sins committed in previous life.
• The competition in market is very high. Other industries produce similar kind of product in large scale so able to sell in cheaper cost   whereas small scale production by the project is more expensive. Also since these are   made by Children with Disabilities, finishing may not be good and also loss incurred due to rough making of some products.
• The parents who have taken the training say it is not possible for them to go to shops and sell the items they prepare. So, finding market is problem. The wages paid are low and mothers need to give caregiving to CwD and do their household chores. So they don’t get much time to pursue other occupation.

The youths with disabilities who participated in the training said they were very happy to learn all the skills. The YwD were found to be enjoying a lot being creative and producing something useful. They can develop it as a hobby and sharpen their creative skills.