Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR)

What is CBR?

CBR is a program through which field workers visit the homes of disabled children, providing counselling for the parents for the special needs of their child. The parents are trained to give their children speech and physiotherapy, as well as basic instruction of how to care for their child. In many situations economic rehabilitation is also provided, meaning a small amount of money is given to allow the parents to begin self-employment to be able to provide for the family.

Achievements of CBR

• Disabled adults receive economic support for self-employment projects.
• School Dropouts are identified and sent to schools.
• Elderly adults are helped to receive their old age pension from the government.
• Cerebral Palsy children are given therapy exercises and appliances with the help of the Spastic Society of Tamil Nadu.
• Scholarships and free bus passes are issued to many disabled people. Identification cards, which allow the bearer to receive some government benefits, are also issued to those who qualify.
• A Trust has been registered for the disabled people at Attuputhore village.
• Disabled people are provided with artificial limbs, crutches, wheelchairs, and hand tricycles.
• Training is given to interested locals to generate more CBR field workers.

The CBR program attempts to help the disabled children and their families. The CBR field workers identify the disabled children in a village and proceed to provide counselling to the parents of how to best care for their child's special needs. The parents are taught how to give physiotherapy or speech therapy to their children, allowing the parents direct involvement in their child's rehabilitation.

The target area of two blocks namely Walajabad and Kancheepuram consists 3500 disabled people among .5 million population. One program manager, six field workers, five caregivers deliver services to the adult disabled people and children . We generally focus on disabled people who live below the poverty line by providing them with appliances and aids such as calipers, crutches, wheel chairs, tricycles, and physiotherapy equipment.

Vocational Training

• Training/Embroidery Unit

This unit imparts sewing/embroidering skills to poor rural women and hostel children. It offers free tailoring program for a period of 10 months after which they can qualify for a diploma program. On average about 40 women per year get trained through this program and can then be self-employed.

The programme targets impoverished rural women who through the training can gain employment, increasing their sense of self-worth as well as their income. Children from the Hostel can also be taught vocational skills under this programme.

• Seven ladies got training under TRYSEM scheme for a period of six months. It helped for training to ten hostel children.
• Total numbers of women who got training and benefited by this unit were about 10 form the local and neighbouring villages .
• Computer center - This center imparts basic computer skills mainly to the hostel children with the help of volunteers and older hostel children. They also aim to conduct summer camps open for people in the village in order to become computer literate.

National Programme for the persons with disabilities (NPRPD)

In cooperation with the State Government, KOGS sponsors specialists who help in the rehabilitation of persons with various disabilities. Women are trained in identification and rehabilitation of disabled persons, one woman per village. These employees can then issue Government disability identification cards, supply appliances for the physically handicapped, help with economic rehabilitation, and give physiotherapy. The women are paid by the State Government but trained by KOGS employees.

Care Giver's Training Programme

This project, now in its second year, focuses on educating the parents of children with cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation, and multiple disabilities. Through the training the parents learn how to better care for the special needs of their child providing them with a better life and relationship with their parents.

Farm

To provide employment for local villagers as well as help fund the organization, KOGS has a coconut farm located just outside the hostel. In the past we have supported chicken, sheep, and sugarcane farms.

Community Assistance

KOGS has also helped numerous locals with special financial assistance in the form of loans or gifts. These are given on a case-by-case basis, commonly assisting people affected by a calamity, such as fire or monsoon damage.