Survey
Our CBR workers survey the impoverished rural areas surrounding our rehabilitation centres, identifying disabled people who need support and raising awareness about disabled people’s rights. We help people to get access to our rehabilitation centres and to other services such as eye surgery.
[Photo © Richard Renaldi. The majority of Cambodia's population lives in the poor, rural areas of the country. Many disabled people are too afraid or too poor to leave their villages to seek rehabilitation. Surveys are therefore vital to ensure that disadvantaged disabled people get access to the services they need.]
Education
We support disabled children from poor families by providing school books, uniforms and bicycles. We build ramps and install handrails to improve access to classrooms. We work with parents, teachers and Government to emphasise the importance of education for disabled children, and to ensure that disabled children have equal opportunities to attend school.
[Photo © Robert Joiner: Man Ty contracted polio at a very young age. Both his legs were affected and he is now a wheelchair user. Ty attends his local school and is a very popular student. Our CBR project has supported Ty by providing a wheelchair to suit his needs; our community workers have also provided school uniforms and ensured that his fellow students and teachers have a greater awareness about disability rights.]
Self help
We work with disabled people to establish self-help community groups.
We support the Cambodian Disabled People’s Organization (CDPO) in order to strengthen local capacity and to build effective representation - for disabled people, by disabled people.
[Photo © Cambodia Trust clients, participating in the International Day of Disabled Persons. ]
Training & Employment
We help disabled adults to gain access to skills training, to help them find employment. We provide support, small grants and access to micro credit programmes to enable people to establish small businesses.
[Photo © Robert Joiner: Landmine survivor Tuy One received a small grant to help her establish a farm to grow aquatic vegetables, which she sells in the local market to boost her income from rice planting.Tuy One is homeless and her one desire is to become self-reliant and provide a better future for her daughters.]
Training & Advocacy
This area of our community work includes
advocacy amongst schools, hospitals,
government departments and the disabled
community, to enable disabled people to
take up places in education, training and
poverty reduction schemes.
We are founder members of Cambodia’s
Disability Action Council (DAC). By
encouraging collaboration between NGOs
working in Cambodia and the relevant
Government departments, the Council aims
to improve the rights of the large,
disadvantaged population of disabled
people.
We also run training courses for
organisations running mainstream poverty
reduction schemes, to raise awareness of
disabled people's rights and to increase
their inclusion in mainstream programmes.
[Photo: © Robert Joiner: With support from our Community-based rehabilitation programme, landmine survivor Sok Samol has received vocational training and a small grant to enable him to establish a motorbike repair shop on a busy main street. He is now generating enough income to support his family and send his children to school.]