Forum on community-based rehabilitation for disabled opens

The Congress, which has been jointly sponsored by the World Health Organisation, Australian Aid, USAID, CBM and Sightsavers, an agency committed to help the visually handicapped, will take up various aspects of disability and overcoming challenges due to these.

The conference is spread over five sessions and three days, with about 1,200 delegates from 72 countries attending it and more than fifty papers by experts from all over the world being presented for discussion.

Inaugurating the event, Stuti Kacker, Secretary of the newly created Department of Disability Affairs, in the Ministry of Social Justice, said there was a need for acceptance of the disabled by the population at large.

Etinne Kruf, Director Injuries and Violence, World Health Organisation, said there were an estimated one billion people with disabilities all over the world accounting for eighteen per cent of the world's population.

Such a large chunk had limited access to essential facilities including education, work and hospitals.

Poonam Natrajan, President, Organising Committee of the Congress, said it was hoped that the event would promote Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) as an effective strategy to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of the disabled and their families. PTI CORR

AVT