MaximsNewsNetwork: PAKISTAN: WORLD DISABILITY DAY: WORLD BANK

MaximsNewsNetwork: O3 December 2009 - World Bank: In Pakistan, an innovative World Bank-supported program aims to help those badly hurt in an earthquake four years ago. The wounds may have healed, but the damage remains. December 3rd marks World Disability Day.

Mohammed Safeer is a tailor in a town outside Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. He lives an hours walk away. A long, brutal trip for a man with only one leg.
He lost his leg in a bomb blast years ago, and could barely move with his old prosthesis. Often, he was so bruised he couldnt walk for two or three days.
But now he has a new prosthesis and a new look at life.
SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Mohammed Safeer, Tailor:
I couldnt walk, not much at all, but now, with this leg, I can walk to work and home.
Kiran Shehzada was in school when Pakistans devastating earthquake hit. She was buried under tons of rubble, 35 of her classmates died. Now she uses a wheelchair to get around. She was trained to use her new wheelchair and to help herself now that her life has changed.
She wants to stay in school.
SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Kiran Shehzada, Student:
After training they took me places and after training I saw other disabled people and they told me Id be able to do the same things they can do.
Mohammed and Kiran have much in common. They are disabled people in a society which is hard for them to navigate. Disabled people in Pakistan have trouble getting around and into buildings and they are often scorned.
Haider Darain operates a center that helps disabled people to fit in at home, at work and in society.
SOUNDBITE (English) Haider Darain, Resource Information Center:
The main thing is accessibility, that is what we have observed on our field visits. The places are not accessible, so the disabled people, they were confined to their houses. And second is that behavior change, the people look at them with the strange eyes.
Darain says disabled women often have it the hardest—discriminated against because of their gender and because of their handicap.
But Ruqkoya Tabassen is fighting the stereotype. She wants to get out of the house and help people.
She broke her spine in the earthquake and relies on a wheelchair. She received training on how to get around and she can now do most of things she did before she was hurt.
SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Roqkoya Tabassen, Advocate:
I am going to take what Ive learned in training and take it to people who are poorer and worse off than I am.
The program teaches them how to get around, but also how to advocate for themselves. It provides everything from wheelchair training to glasses and walking sticks.
The goal is to make life—buildings, relationships, jobs—open for all, no matter how many stairs and other obstacles they have to get around.


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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Pakistan
• World Disability Day
• December 3
• Muzaffarabad
• wheelchair
• World Bank
• MaximsNews Network
• Disabled people

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