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Home-based rehabilitation teams go door-to-door to provide services directly in to the client. Mobile services help to ensure that persons who are unable to access fixed centres are not excluded from services.
© CBM
Contact details
Submitted by: Emma Pettey, Inclusive Humanitarian Action Project Officer, CBM
Email: [email protected]
Website: cbm.org/
Social:
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Introduction to the project
Country
Bangladesh
Duration
December 2017 - Ongoing
Description
CBM and Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) are implementing a multidisciplinary project focusing on health, rehabilitation, protection and external technical support on disability inclusion in the Rohingya camps and host communities.
Project aims
A rapid assessment involving focus group discussions and key informant interviews with 27 people with disabilities, older persons and other humanitarian actors was conducted by CDD and ASB on the situation of persons with disabilities and older persons in the Rohingya camp between November 29th and December 4th, 2017. The assessment aimed to assess inclusion under five key areas: identification, accessibility, meaningful participation, empowerment and rights. The assessment highlighted a significant gap in terms of service delivery (lack of rehabilitation services) and on inclusion of persons with disabilities by mainstream humanitarian actors in their humanitarian response plans. From this initial assessment the focus areas for CBM and CDD’s intervention were identified. The objectives of the project are:
- To provide basic medical and rehabilitation services for Rohingya (through onsite services) and host community (through mobile unit) people with and without disabilities.
- To provide rehabilitation services for hard to reach Rohingya and host community people with disabilities by Home Based Rehabilitation (HBR) teams.
- To create an Inclusive Safe Space for Rohingya children (for purposeful and leisure activities and informal education).
- To provide technical support to mainstream humanitarian organizations on inclusive humanitarian services.
- To provide protection from the cold (blankets) to the most at risk Rohingya people to ensure health and well-being.
Resources used
The partnership approach between CBM and CDD, whereby CBM brought skills and experience in inclusive humanitarian action and CDD, who have a long history of running Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR) and disaster preparedness projects in the country, provided strong local leadership and contextual knowledge, contributed towards a comprehensive program design. CBM has also began establishing an “Emergency Management Team” in each of their responses, which has allowed the important stakeholders within both CBM and their partners to join discussions together, share expertise and make collaborative decisions. This model was used in this response and has helped to enrich the project design, and ensure a partnership relationship whereby both organizations come to the table together to share expertise and experience for the betterment of the project. CBM implemented a real time evaluation which involved key stakeholders from management and field level from CBM and CDD, which has allowed the organizations to better define the direction of the second phase of the project and highlighted good practice, challenges and opportunities.
Partners
Centre for Disability in Development (CDD)
Arafat (second from the right) playing with his friends outside CBM and CDD’s inclusive Child Friendly Space (CFS) in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh. Arafat, who is 10, has hearing and speech impairments. The design and inclusive facilitation methods used in the CFS help ensure that all children are included in activities.
© CBM/Hayduk
Challenges and how they were overcome
Challenges:
While persons with disabilities are engaged in some stages of the project cycle, there is still need to ensure all persons with different types of disabilities are engaged in all stages of the project cycle. The absence of organizations of persons with disabilities (DPOs) in Cox’s Bazar District and in the Rohingya community has considerably limited the advocacy work towards promotion, respect and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and engagement of persons with disabilities in the project cycle. Both a complaints box and beneficiary satisfaction survey have been used to allow beneficiaries to provide feedback on the services provided, however, it was determined that the complaints box did not produce the expected results.
How they were overcome:
CBM and CDD have sought creative methods of engaging with the disability movement, including through umbrella organizations which work with DPOs in the country. Funding has been allocated in project proposals to support DPO engagement in the response, including DPO representation in the Age and Disability Working Group (ADWG). CBM and CDD decided to move towards a more push method where a dedicated person would anonymously collect feedback from the beneficiaries.
Results of the Good Practice
- The provision of health and rehabilitation services in both the refugee camps and host communities has helped to improve the health of refuges and host community people. The home based rehabilitation teams ensure people who were unable to reach the medical centres are not excluded from services.
- Accessibility modifications to refugees’ homes and community along with advocacy and technical support at cluster level and with mainstream humanitarian actors has helped improve access to humanitarian services for persons with disabilities.
How the project meets the GCR Objectives
Objective 1: Ease the pressures on host countries
CBM and CDD provided services in both the Rohingya camps and host communities. In the host community, a “bus camp” was established. The bus camp is mobile, allowing the equipment to be moved to different locations throughout the year in order to reach different parts of the host community. Health and rehabilitation services are provided at the bus camp, along with home based rehabilitation which allows for persons with reduced mobility or who are otherwise unable to access the bus camp to receive rehabilitation in their home environment.
Objective 2: Enhance refugee self-reliance
Persons with disabilities have been consulted in the initial assessment and throughout the program through feedback monitoring mechanisms including the beneficiary complaints feedback mechanism. Feedback from the Rohingya and host communities regarding the need to provide rehabilitation services in people’s homes was one of the main reasons why CBM and CDD developed a home based rehabilitation component in their programs. Several focus group discussions involving persons with disabilities and interviews were also done as a monitoring mechanism.
