Take a moment to look at this empowerment experience in Malawi.
Please select the Learn more link below to read about this story.
Learn what an empowered disabled community in Malawi was able to achieve
CBR
in
Action
In Malawi, a national CBR has been very successful in supporting the creation of a community of people with disabilities that is visible, vocal and active.
This national programme was created through a partnership of government ministries and NGOs several It sends representatives to work directly with people with disabilities at the district and sub-district levels to empower them.
The Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA), a subsidiary of the Ministry for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly (MPWDE), is responsible for implementing the national CBR. MACOHA also works in partnership with these other government ministries:
Empowerment began with:
A community awareness programme
Mobilization of the community
The organization of persons with disabilities, and
The formation of a committee of persons with disabilities
Representatives of the committee then attended a training workshop to learn about the concepts of CBR and mainstreaming. This made it possible for them to:
Negotiate with local authorities
Access the benefits available to them through development initiatives
People with disabilities could then access health, education and livelihood opportunities. As they become more visible, vocal and active, the community of people with disabilities:
Promoted their participation in mainstream activities
Claimed equal opportunities, and
Enhanced their self-confidence
The Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA), a subsidiary of the Ministry for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly (MPWDE), is responsible for implementing the national CBR programme. MACOHA also works in partnership with these other government ministries:
Health
Education
Finance
Economic planning
Gender
Child development, and
Community development
The following non-governmental organizations provide support to the national CBR programme:
Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (FEDOMA)
CBM
Sight Savers international, and
The Norwegian Association of the Disabled
When you are finished reading this story, consider:
What important elements of empowerment are demonstrated in this illustration?
What other elements have you personally experienced?
Then enter your own thoughts about empowerment below:
[contact-form-7 id="2367" title="Some thoughts on the importance of empowerment"]
Website Tour Guide
INCLUDE Site Tour
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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.