ICRC workshop in Kabul where disabled serve disabled

KABUL (Pajhwok): A number of disabled persons who are able to find work have become a source of hope for other physically challenged ones.

Such disabled workers produce artificial limbs for the same people who face difficulties in their daily life such as going and working.

Pajhwok Afghan News reporter interviewed such working disabled persons at an ICRC workshop in Kabul who produce artificial limbs, casts and other parts of body for other amputees. These workers confirmed that they were trained to produce such parts of body.

On a daily basis, many other disabled people come to this workshop and see disabled people are assisted with enthusiasm.

While talking to Pajhwok, these workers said they produced artificial body parts and limbs to help other disabled ones and enable them to walk and feel no defect or shortage in their life.

The physical rehabilitation centre of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was established 37 years ago in 1987. It has seven branches across Afghanistan, where 850 people work with 90 percent of them people with disabilities.

Azizullah Bahaduri is one of the workshop workers. He was paralyzed 18 years ago due to a tumor in his back. Bahaduri said: “When I was paralyzed, I spent four years on bed at home, after that I was introduced by one of my relatives to the “Physical Rehabilitation Centre of the ICRC”.”

“I started playing basketball at the workshop and attending school as well. After my graduation from the school, I learned English and Computer programs too”, he said.

“Then I followed a training course in physical rehabilitation at the centre, after that I have been working in production of casts for other disabled peoples’ legs, I am satisfied with my work.”

Bahaduri is happy for working at the ICRC workshop because he helps other people with disabilities. He narrated his story as this: “I was in depression when I got disabled, but after studying here and joining the workshop and playing sport, I was enabled to serve other such people.”

Demands of disabled from government

“I want the government to pay more attention to disabled people and create more employment opportunities for them in different sectors to support them. The government must accept people with disabilities like other ordinary workers to make them successful. The people with disabilities need to learn and work, when they are provided such facilities they will not be depressed.”

In a massage to other such people he said, disability was not a defect, such people must assign goals for their development.

Khuaja Asifullah Seddiqi, another worker at the physiotherapy section of the ICRC workshop, said he got disabled when the shrapnel of a rocket hit him in his school in 1996. He said: “I was a 12^th grade student when a rocked shell landed in our school, we were in class and a shrapnel struck my right leg. which was later led amputated.”

Seddiqi got an artificial limb (leg) from the ICRC workshop which enabled his to commute to his school. After learning English and getting a certificate in physiotherapy, he joined the ICRC Rehabilitation Centre and since then he has been serving other people with disabilities for 25 years.

He said: “I feel better because I learnt a profession and made my economy and have a place in society. Other people respect me and I am happy in this environment helping other such people.”

Sikandar, originally from central Bamyan province, has come to the workshop to measure his knee castings and frames in the workshop. He is working under the supervision of Seddiqi. Sikandar told Pajhwok he came to the ICRC workshop after operating his knee in Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan Hospital.

He said he could not stretch his knee but he felt a little better after getting a frame for his leg.

While expressing his satisfaction with services provided at the workshop, he said his knee was better than in the past.

Amir Jan Ahmadzai, head of artificial limbs department and physical rehabilitation at the workshop, said different patients come to the workshop and get services.

Ahmad said: “Officials of the workshop decide after a disabled person comes here what to make for him/her and what services they need. We have no restrictions about the provision of artificial limbs.”

There is not time limit for comers and they can visit the workshop any time to get services, Ahmad added.

As the world makred December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, ICRC hospital director Najmuddin Hilal said 16,000 to 18,000 new disabled persons were registered in Afghanistan annually.

These hospitals and other centres of the committee accepted only those ones who were disabled in the wars, but afterwards it opened its doors for all people with disabilities to address their problems about amputation of their arms, feet and other parts of their bodies.

December 3 was declared as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) by the United Nations General Assembly in 1992 and since then the day is celebrated annually.

The purpose of designation of this day was to promote the growth of public awareness about issues related to various disabilities and to increase awareness that should result from the inclusion of people with disabilities in all political, social, economic and cultural aspects of life.

aw/ma

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