The three-day CBR/CBID Africa Conference took place in Uganda from September 9-13. The event brought together African thought leaders and practitioners in Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) and Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) to share and discuss research results, best practices and innovations.

Participants included people with a disability, CBR experts, OPD’s (organisations of persons with a disability), academics, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) working in the field of CBR/CBID from all over the African continent and beyond. Liliane Fonds was represented by its partners CBCHS (Cameroon), NUDOR (Rwanda), KCH (Uganda), and CHSZ (Zambia), who submitted winning abstracts and presented their work at the conference. CBR is Liliane Fonds’ core strategy to achieve Community Based Inclusive Development.

In this article, three of them would like to share more about their abstract, their experiences during the event and especially what they gained by attending.

Tsangue Glory Tchiaze – RCI Project in Cameroon (Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services)
Tsangue Glory Tchiaze joined the conference online from Cameroon to present multiple research and projects. One of these was the Rehabilitation Compass for Inclusion (RCI) project to develop high-quality professional training for rehabilitation staff. The project focused on developing sustainable rehabilitation education programs by enhancing the skills of professionals in CBR diploma level, Physiotherapy bachelor, Occupational Therapy bachelor and the multi-skilled rehabilitation technician (MRT) diploma course. To create sustainability in the project there was a focus on working with existing structures in education and policy.

In 2023, 36 rehabilitation workers graduated from the CBR and MRT courses and have been employed in various facilities. Surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023 showed an increase in children with disabilities accessing quality rehabilitation services, with 4,921 identified in 2023, up from 2,258 in 2022. It is nice to see the scale of this project and the fact that it really addresses a gap in Cameroon.

A giant step in this CBR-journey in Cameroon is the realisation of a brand new educational centre, where all rehabilitation courses will come together under one roof plus a library and a student hostel. Read more about it via Rehabilitation Compass for Inclusion | Liliane Fonds

Jean d’Amour Uramutse – (CBR/CBID) Pilot project (National Union of Disability Organisations in Rwanda)
Jean d’Amour works as CBR’/CBID project manager at our partner organization NUDOR in Rwanda. His presentation focused on the CBR Pilot Project (2022-2024). The project adopted a multi-sectoral approach, involving public institutions, local leaders, religious leaders, private institutions and community members, amongst others. Jean d’Amour highlighted the experiences gained during the project’s implementation, including the context, approaches, successes, challenges, and key learnings.

Successes and challenges

Key successes included strong leadership from local leaders, increased acceptance of children with disabilities, reduced parental self-stigma, establishment of support groups, and exploration of community resources. There were also challenges like geographical obstacles and the distance between the families and the CBR partners. Because of the distance it was sometimes challenging to give the needed follow-up with to the families that were part of the CBR program.

For Jean d’Amour it was a good opportunity to share his experiences but also learn from other contexts: ‘’It provided an opportunity to share our experiences from the CBR Pilot Project in Rwanda with other partners. Following my presentation, other participants reached out to me for more exchange about our approaches. Secondly, I had the chance to learn from the successes of other countries. For instance, Uganda and Zambia . Therefore, I engaged in exchanges with partners from these countries to better understand the methodologies they used to reach such an advanced level of CBID integration.’’

Do you want to see a best practice of CBR in Rwanda. Watch the documentary about Mugisha HERE.

Sharon Handongwe – ZECREP project in Zambia (Cheshire Homes Society Zambia)
Sharon Handongwe had the opportunity to share the pathways that Cheshire Homes Society Zambia (CHSZ), a partner organisation of Liliane Fonds, used in the Zambia Enhanced CBR response Project. The project, developed by local community and national stakeholders, helped to achieve the targets to date and beyond. CBR, a holistic and participatory approach, emerged as a response to the limitations of traditional medical models for disability. ZECREP implemented activities through five change pathways:

• family outreach,
• peer groups,
• community influencers,
• stakeholder forums, service provider partnerships

These pathways contributed to earlier identification and intervention, inclusive community development and empowerment of persons with disabilities. The community influencers included church leaders, traditional healers, and traditional leaders. Sharon shares: ‘’One thing that stuck with me was how to engage the groups that we have worked with. Because many other people expressed having not tried to work with traditional healers and how to make sure they agree to work together as church leaders and traditional healers. The other thing was that everyone agreed that between these two groups, a lack of awareness hindered early identification and intervention for children with disabilities.’’

To the question what Sharon gained from the conference, she listed the following takeaways:
1. Inconsistencies in CBR trainings around the continent needed to be addressed because some trainings were conducted in a span of 1 to 2 weeks while others went up to 3 years.
2. Rehabilitation in Uganda, like in many African countries, is only provided at referral hospitals.
3. Managing information systems made it a challenge for many countries to plan and offer services adequately.

Want to know more about the ZECREP programme and best practices? Make sure to read this article: ZECREP II | Liliane Fonds