In the past, many community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes focused on health issues and rehabilitation activities, often ignoring the social needs of people with disabilities.
Even today, topics such as relationships, marriage and parenting are too sensitive or too difficult to address, while access to cultural, sporting and recreation activities, and to justice, is seen as unnecessary.
We now know that being able to actively participate in social relationships and activities has a powerful positive effect on personal development. CBR needs to actively support the social inclusion of people with disabilities in their families and communities.
See how people with disabilities in Mexico are benefiting from a programme that facilitates their inclusion in society.
CBR in Action
Pina Palmera is a non-governmental organization working on the south coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Pina Palmera started community-based rehabilitation activities in 1989, and is active today in seven rural communities.
Pina Palmera works closely with people with disabilities and their families to address their day-to-day needs, as well as with local authorities, teachers, public transport operators and local medical professionals to remove barriers and facilitate the social inclusion of people with disabilities in their communities.
Pina Palmera undertakes a number of activities with children with disabilities and people with severe or multiple impairments. Pina Palmera’s staff members or volunteers provide assistance with items such as:
Personal hygiene
Travel in the community
Social activities
When it is needed, personal assistance is also provided to staff members with disabilities to enable them to carry out their work activities.
Pina Palmera encourages people with disabilities to participate in recreation, leisure and sports activities. The organization works in collaboration with people with disabilities and local sports people to provide resources and organize local community events where both disabled and non-disabled people participate. Assistive devices and adapted sporting equipment are provided as necessary to enable people with disabilities to participate. Several people with disabilities have gone on to participate in the national wheelchair basketball team.
Pina Palmera organizes workshops for people with disabilities on topics such as effective communication, conflict resolution, teamwork, respect, gender equality and sexuality. These workshops assist people with disabilities to expand their social networks. When it is needed, Pina Palmera also provides advice on legal rights in simple language to ensure that people with disabilities are able to defend themselves against acts of injustice.
Welcome to INCLUDE! This short tour will introduce you to the many resources available to you in our
learning community.
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This is the Module library page. It is the first thing you will see after you register and log into INCLUDE.
From here, you can choose to view nine different learning modules, each of which examines a different aspect of Community-Based Rehabilitation.
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Each time you make a selection from the Module library, you will enter a learning module (in this case the Health module) that you can interact with in a number of ways.
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You will have a number of opportunities to reflect on your thoughts, feelings and experiences related to CBR, as well as on what you have learned so far. If you want, you can choose to share your reflections with other members of the INCLUDE community.
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Note that when you are inside a learning module, you use the Continue and Back buttons at the bottom of the screen to move ahead to the next page, or go back to the previous page.
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You can also choose to jump directly to a different part of the current module by making a selection from the menu on the left side of the screen.
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In each learning module, you will also have the opportunity to respond to poll questions and learn what others in the INCLUDE community are thinking about CBR.
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You can also review numerous real-life examples of how others are successfully implementing CBR around the world.
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And you can create an action plan to help you:
•Better understand the needs of your programme, and
•Take specific, concrete steps to address them
As with reflections, if you want, you can also choose to share your action plan with other members of the community.
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Additional resources are available any time you want to access them, frrom the menu at the top of every screen.
From the Reflect option on this menu, you can:
•Review all of the reflections you have entered so far, or
•View the reflections other members of the INCLUDE community have entered and chosen to share
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Under Action Plan, you can:
•Work on your own action plan, or
•View action plans that other members of the community have created and chosen to share
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You can also view the full library of real-life examples of CBR in action from this menu.
If you want to locate the examples that are most relevant to your work, you can filter these examples by subject and region, as well as by the gender and age(s) of the population being served.
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In the Community section you can:
•Participate in conversations (discussions) with other members of the INCLUDE community
•View the results of every poll question included in the course
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Finally, you can view a set of additional resources related to CBR in the Resource library.
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Finally, you can view a set of additional resources related to CBR in the Resource library.
Pina Palmera is a non-governmental organization working on the south coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Pina Palmera started community-based rehabilitation activities in 1989, and is active today in seven rural communities.
Pina Palmera works closely with people with disabilities and their families to address their day-to-day needs, as well as with local authorities, teachers, public transport operators and local medical professionals to remove barriers and facilitate the social inclusion of people with disabilities in their communities.
Pina Palmera undertakes a number of activities with children with disabilities and people with severe or multiple impairments. Pina Palmera’s staff members or volunteers provide assistance with items such as:
When it is needed, personal assistance is also provided to staff members with disabilities to enable them to carry out their work activities.
Pina Palmera encourages people with disabilities to participate in recreation, leisure and sports activities. The organization works in collaboration with people with disabilities and local sports people to provide resources and organize local community events where both disabled and non-disabled people participate. Assistive devices and adapted sporting equipment are provided as necessary to enable people with disabilities to participate. Several people with disabilities have gone on to participate in the national wheelchair basketball team.
Pina Palmera organizes workshops for people with disabilities on topics such as effective communication, conflict resolution, teamwork, respect, gender equality and sexuality. These workshops assist people with disabilities to expand their social networks. When it is needed, Pina Palmera also provides advice on legal rights in simple language to ensure that people with disabilities are able to defend themselves against acts of injustice.