Bearing in mind the unstable overall political situation, the occupation and lack of peace in Palestine, it is not difficult to grasp the negligence of the Palestinian Government to implement the law of Disability eight years after it has been endorsed. Inclusion of disabled persons into the society is still an urgent priority. Civil society and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) are therefore key players in the rehabilitation sector.

The start of Diakonia and The Norwegian Association of Disabled (NAD)’s rehabilitation programme dates back to the beginning of 1990s when support was provided to institutional medical rehabilitation service. Since then, the programme has developed to comprise four main components: the Community Based Rehabilitation Programme (CBRP), the referral service provision component, the empowerment of self organized groups of disabled people organizations and the regional cooperation.

Important to empower disabled

The aim of the CBRP is to empower the disabled people, challenge factors that exclude their participation in the society, and to advocate for change towards the government. Referral service provision provides a resource for supporting CBR as well as disseminating knowledge and educating community workers from CBR organizations, who are in direct contact with disabled persons and their families. Empowering the disabled to fight for their own rights, to advocate towards and influence decision and policy makers to benefit and help themselves is the key idea behind the self-organized groups of disabled people component. Finally, sharing our experience with other organizations in the region is of high priority, as the success of the Palestine CBR model will help changing stereotypes about disability and setting up structures that will improve the life quality of the disabled.

Read more Article about challenging stereotypes

Performance during the summer camp in Hebron, Palestine. Community Based Rehabilitation organised 26 inclusive summer camps in the West Bank and Gaza. Around 4000 children took part and approximetely 29 percent of them were children with disabilities. Photo: Diakonia