Restore Children with Disabilities across Community Based Rehabilitation (RESH)

The project uses various clubs and plays performed by able-bodied and disabled children to increase the awareness of the rights of disabled children, as well as how parents can help these children.

Parent clubs
Through separate mothers and father clubs, parents come together and share their experiences, worries, and ideas on how to help their children. Fathers come together to talk about their children with disabilities and share their experiences and thoughts about their children. The mothers club also allows mothers to come together and support each other.

Exercise clubs
Sessions with doctors are held with parents to teach them exercises to do with their children to help children when they are at home. Children are not only taught to use their new equipment but also to have a better quality of life using their braces, glasses, and hearing aids.

Schools Initiatives
Through workshops, Plan is also educating communities about disabilities and the needs of disabled children. Teachers work with parents to build awareness and end discrimination between children in classrooms. The project also works to integrate children with disabilities into the community.

At the beginning of the project, Plan took a census of children with disabilities in order to follow their progress and give support. In the areas covered by the project there are 1,503 children with disabilities: 910 boys and 592 girls. Although many African governments now provide free primary education to children with disabilities, organisers say more focus is still needed on the issues affecting such children, such as access to education; violence against children with disabilities; the link between poverty and disability; social attitudes, stigma, and discrimination; and the right to be heard and to participate.

Disabilities, Human rights

Plan International operates programmes in countries across Africa to support communities; promoting inclusion and integration of children with disabilities in education, sports, and social activities. Plan has provides equipment to children with disabilities in Togo, including hearing aids and glasses. It has also provided 870 children in Togo with leg braces and referred children to local orthopaedic specialists.