ETHIOPIA - Zelalem can walk again!

Rehabilitation worker Tsehaynesh shows Zelalem and her mother how to properly use the prothesis.

Children with disabilities in developing countries hardly have a chance for self development like other children. LIGHT FOR THE WORLD is engaged in targeting support to enable them to lead an autonomous life and later generate their own income for their families. This becomes particularly clear in community rehabilitation programmes.

In Ethiopia, one of the focus countries of LIGHT FOR THE WORLD, there are about 80 million people. According to estimates from the World Health Organization, five to ten percent of the world's population has a disability or multiple disabilities, which means that in Ethiopia alone, 4 to 8 million people are disabled!

Community based rehabilitation in Ethiopia

Zelalem is happy. Now she can play and laugh with her friends!

To support people with disabilities, especially children, in their development and in exploring their talents, rehabilitation field workers visit families with disabled family members in Gondar. In addition to the therapeutic treatment and the work with the families, the focus is put on awareness-raising in the village and with the local institutions. Disability clubs were founded in the schools, and ensure that children with disabilities are well included in the schools and can take part in the learning on an equal footing. However, members of the disability club also take part in the traditional coffee ceremonies and show their neighbourhoods how important it is to integrate persons with disabilities into every day life. More community based rehabilitation projects were added on January of this year to this model project in Gondar, particularly in Awassa and the rural areas around Arba Minch in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People‘s Region (SNNPR), in the south of the country.

Zelalem can walk again!

When eight year old Zelalem lost her right leg in an accident with a horse cart, her world broke down. However, a therapy centre in Arba Minch, which works with the support of LIGHT FOR THE WORLD, provided her with a prosthesis and crutches.
With the help of her rehabilitation worker, Zelalem has now learned how to use them. She is learning how to have the prosthesis support her weight and how to keep her balance. The exercises are strenuous and time consuming, but she had her first successes. In about two years Zelalem will be able to walk without crutches. Her first steps with the prosthesis gave Zelalem her courage back. Now she can play and laugh with her friends!