Living with disabilities - Ethiopiaid

Living with disability

Help create a disability-inclusive society across Ethiopia.

Our local partners are committed to supporting people living with disabilities and neglected tropical diseases, to help them fulfill their potential.

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The challenge today

People living with disabilities in Ethiopia are often side-lined in society, unable to access education and healthcare and failing to achieve their full potential.

These challenges can seem insurmountable to those who may live in rural areas or are unable to access medical assistance. But we know it is possible for these children and adults to be active members of their communities.

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The solution you can be part of

To create a disability-inclusive society across Ethiopia by treating orthopaedic disabilities, creating community awareness to remove stigma around disability and provide mobility aids.

Alongside this, the solution also includes access to quality education for children with Special Educational Needs, to ensure that no one gets left behind.

Transforming lives through mobile outreach services that support disabled children and young people with follow-up care, mobility aids, and on-site rehabilitation, while ensuring access to professional support when needed.

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Empowering children with developmental impairments through a community-based rehabilitation program that integrates effective rehabilitation services with livelihood, educational, and vocational training for their parents, currently active in Hawassa, Dire Dawa, and Harar.

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Providing comprehensive rehabilitation and physiotherapy services for children with polio and neurological disorders, both before and after surgery, while training 80 mothers annually to support their children’s recovery and empower them to educate other mothers in their communities.

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Improving access to appropriate wheelchairs for individuals with mobility impairments in Ethiopia through comprehensive projects that address shortages, fitting services, and maintenance.

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Equal opportunities

Equal opportunities for children and adults living with disabilities. Preventing and treating neglected tropical diseases. Building inclusive and accessible communities for everyone. Restoring dignity and providing care for older people and people with terminal illnesses.

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800 children

with disabilities supported in educational pursuits.

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Inclusive Education

For a child living with a disability in Ethiopia, access to education is virtually impossible. Since 2013, Ethiopiaid has partnered with Cheshire Services in Harar to expand educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged children with disabilities. This includes providing mobility aids, offering educational subsidies, and creating a more accessible environment. We also support home-based care to children with disabilities. This is achieved through the provision of walking aids as well as rehabilitation activities such as physiotherapy. In this way, children can receive comprehensive treatment, close to their families, and in a familiar environment. We also construct structures such as ramps and accessible toilets at schools where students have mobility issues.

Cheshire runs an inclusive kindergarten class, where children with physical and developmental disabilities learn alongside their peers without disabilities. Children receive extra educational support where needed, and gain valuable social interaction skills. We offer subsidies to cover the cost of school fees, books, and transportation to older children with disabilities. They may not have been able to attend school when they were younger, due to their disability. Through these programs, we’re working to ensure that all children reach

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2022: 910 males and females with disabilities received access to assistive devices; 125 women and children were provided home-based rehabilitation provisions; inclusive kindergarten helped education at home for 31 children.

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2022: Increased academic performance of orphaned and vulnerable children through reduction of dropouts with the improvement of school attendance.

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Meet your project partner

Cheshire

Cheshire Services is working towards a future where all children living with a disability in Ethiopia can access healthcare, education and live with dignity. Their Menagesha Rehabilitation Centre in Oromia region is their flagship site, providing both resident children and outpatients with corrective surgery, physiotherapy and custom-fitted prosthetic limbs and mobility aids. For children living in more remote areas, Cheshire Services run a mobile outreach service. Through their Sustainable Livelihoods Project, they support families with a parent or child living with a disability with agricultural and basic business training, so they are able to support themselves. They also run wider gender and disability awareness training within communities, bringing about better social inclusion, especially for mothers of children with disabilities.