Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) promotes the belief that people with disabilities should have access to education an
d rehabilitation in their own communities using predominantly local resources. It supports full social participation across the spectrum of ages, from inclusion in local schools to employment in the local community.
Leela Agnes of Holy Cross Service Society, Trichy, India, has shared her power presentation on Community-Based Rehabilitation, which is available as a pdf on this page. The following text and photos are from that presentation.
CBR is a local programme which offers needed rehabilitation services for people living within the area.
Career education includes decision making, job seeking, job holding, good work habits.
The team must devise an effective array of programmes that will meet the individual needs of students on the path to adulthood.
- Formal education (learning to read and write)
- Cooking
- Sewing
- Making flower garlands
- Art -- drawing, painting
- Self-care skills
Jobs for all:
- Young age group: making gravel
- Adult group: accounts, preparing food to sell
- Older group: sewing, weaving, packaging
We should never create something which cannot be locally self-sustaining
- Use local materials and tools that are locally available
Domestic activities:
- Participating in cooking job
- Fetching water from community tap
We all need to believe that villagers have within themselves the ideas, resources, and energy to bring about changes.
In CBR people with disabilities need to be fully integrated into the community, such as by traveling independently to the village well and carrying the water safely back home.
Education and work practice go together.
Vocational skills, such as gardening, should be integrated into the student's day, along with more academic skills, such as reading and writing.
Jobs with family support, such as helping to take care of the family's animals and livestock.
Total Rehabilitation in which individuals with disabilities are able to work and marry, and live the same lives as other members of the community.
Overview/Types of Programs | Community-Based Rehabilitation | Sample Transition Programs
