Community based rehabilitation

Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) is a community development strategy, initiated by WHO, that aims at enhancing the lives of persons with disabilities (PWDs) within their community. It is a multi-sectoral approach working to improve the equalization of opportunities and social inclusion of people with disabilities while combating the perpetual cycle of poverty and disability. CBR is implemented through the combined efforts of PWDs, their families and communities, and relevant government and non-government health, education, vocational, social and other services (WHO).

KCDC has been delivering CBR across 7 districts over the past 6 years reaching more than 3,500 children with a wide range of physical, intellectual and communication disabilities yet this is estimated to be less than 1% of CWDs in the region. This includes partnering with 25 local health centres by providing monthly clinics to increase accessibility and community engagement. KCDC has built strong relationships with individual family members, communities, local health centres, schools and district governments and is recognised as the centre of excellence in regards to disability regionally. Research has shown that our parent education and peer support groups increase resilience by providing a participatory approach to learning to care for CWDs and participants increase their quality of life by an average of 24%, which is an essential component of overcoming stigma and isolation.

KCDC’s multidisciplinary team consists of qualified Ugandan therapists, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, orthopedic officers, social workers, nutritionists and special needs teachers. We also partner with a variety of Ugandan universities to offer internship placements to students enrolled in a number of disability-related courses which helps to raise awareness for disability and build a more inclusive society within Uganda.

Our main goal is to ensure children with disabilities have access to equal opportunities and can thrive without stigma and discrimination in their communities using a holistic, community-based approach which includes: provision of specialist therapy services, improving the nutritional status of CwDs suffering from malnutrition, provision of essential epilepsy assessment and medication, providing training raising awareness of disability amongst community members, providing support to caregivers through our parent education and peer support groups, providing training to healthcare workers and teachers and providing economic empowerment training to caregivers of CwDs.