Association of People with Disability (APD)

One thread that ties all of APD's projects together is the philosophy of community-based rehabilitation. APD's philosophy is that people with disabilities belong to communities and have roots within them. APD acknowledges that families and communities still ignore people with disabilities; this awareness explains the programme strategy of refusing to deal with disabilities in isolation. Thus, APD brings the community into its day-to-day work (the school is integrated and has children with and without disabilities, as do its youth groups) and reaches out to the community (through, for example, its Community Health Programme). Details on these projects may be accessed on the APD website. In brief,

• The Shradhanjali Integrated School (SIS) programme enables children with disabilities to attend mainstream schools
• The Industrial Training Centre (ITC) offers industrial skills training to people with disabilities, including young people, to support the acquisition of trade and industry skills for economic development
• The Home Based Programme (HBP) brings opportunities to the homes of people with severe disabilities. Groups of individuals with disabilities take on work orders from private or government enterprises - jobs like welding, drilling, tapping, and buffing which involve the use of machines or turning or fitting tasks.
• The Orthotic Appliances Training and Production Centre makes "effective, affordable and innovative aids and appliances for all individuals with disability....The unit also trains over 9-15 students with disability every year in one-year Ortho-technician course."
• The Urban Slum Outreach Programme (USOP) for people with disability in 12 slum areas of Bangalore
• The Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) project was based on an acre of land and funding from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the village of Kampthampalli, Kolar district. Maternal and child health was the focus in these 10 villages, all situated within a 5 kilometre radius of Anandhashram. The first three years saw APD field staff coordinating with the local government health scheme and successfully increasing the immunisation coverage from 29% to 95%.
  
  The project now organises and empowers communities by developing skills on the part of community members. "The result is sustained and on going developmental work in health, education, disability prevention and management, and income generation. There is a concentrated effort towards motivation, training and organising community members, particularly women, young people and able-bodied people. Mobilising and organising the community has been our strength and we believe in participation."
  
  
• The Horticulture Training Centre (HT) trains people with disabilities; since 1987, HT has grown into a full-fledged production, sales, and training centre
• The Physiotherapy Unit trains families of children with disabilities, as well as young adults who are disabled, to the end of helping increase functional levels, enhancing mobility, and preventing secondary health problems related to disability
• The Information Guidance and Placement unit bridges the gap between the prospective employer and the candidate
• Community Health Work has trained 12 women volunteers from the community to serve as "Health Animators". They motivated other women to participate in health education sessions. They also prepare and distribute nutrition supplement powder to malnourished children below 6 years age and closely follow their development.

APD uses information and communication technology (ICT) to prepare staff - and to create necessary infrastructure - supportive of IT training for the disabled. This training is designed to help participants' improve skills in communication, leadership, and personality development. Specifically, APD's computer unit carries out a One-Year Advanced Diploma Course in Computer Application and Desktop Publishing, as well as a 6-month course. This initiative is focussed on young (aged 17 to 26 years), economically marginalised persons with disabilities. The course is designed to be job-oriented, to the end of preparing participants for a wide area of opportunities as Web designers, graphic designers, computer operators, data entry operators, and the like.

Disability, Children, Youth, Education, Technology, Economic Development.