KABUL (Pajhwok): Coinciding with December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says 16,000 to 18,000 new disabled persons registered in Afghanistan annually.
December 3 was declared as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) by the United Nations General Assembly in 1992, 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 the life.
During his remarks about this day, the ICRC hospital director Najmuddin Hilal told Pajhwok Afghan News that this committee operated in Kabul, Balkh, Herat, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Helmand and Badakhshan provinces and provided its services in “physical rehabilitation and integration of the disabled persons in society.
The 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 of the people with disabilities to address their problems about the amputation of their arms, feet and other parts of their bodies.
We do have some disabled ones who were not linked to wars, but it opened its doors for all such people.
Physical Rehabilitation section
Hilal clarified in the first stage the ICRC centres cover the disabled people under its physical rehabilitation process and then produce artificial limbs, casts, and assistive devices for them.
On daily basis, the ICRC centres receive the average of 300 disable people who are not mostly new ones, but most of them are the ones who come back for their examination and tests to get their artificial limbs and get some repairs in such parts.
The committee had so far registered 260,000 people with disabilities in all of its seven centres across the country.
Hilal said: “In addition to the 260,000 registered disabled people, the committee annually receives around 16,000 and 18,000 other patients about whom 1,000 or 1,500 are directly linked to wars and the rest of them are people with disabilities.”
The integration of disabled persons in society
Additional to the production of artificial limbs and employment generation for people with disabilities, the reintegration of people with disabilities in the society is an important part of the ICRC service, Hilal said.
The children with disabilities are provided stationery to enable them to attend their lessons, such people with disabilities are also provided opportunities to learn tailoring, carpentry and other professions and the elders have the chances to get long term debts too.
As there are more restrictions about employment across the country, the ICRC hospitals follow the policy of hiring only workers with disabilities indiscriminately.
Of all of its 850 staff members that work for the centres, about 90 percent of them are people with disabilities, he added.
Currently 300 workers with disabilities work for the ICRC hospital in Kabul, the administration of the hospital still work to hire more workers from the disabled people of this society.
All of the hospitals of the ICRC committee cover all of the surrounding provinces where they are located across the country, but it prefers to have an independent hospital in each province, Hilal hoped.
It is worth noting that the ICRC’ Physical Rehabilitation Center began operation 27 years ago on December 2, 1987.
Aw/nh
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