Community-Based Rehabilitation Models for Children with Disabilities: Lessons Zimbabwe for Global Application

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@article{1710258,
      author = {Petty Musekiwa, Caren Paidamoyo Kudzotsa, Kundai Mlambo},
      title = {Community-Based Rehabilitation Models for Children with Disabilities: Lessons Zimbabwe for Global Application},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2025},
      volume = {9},
      number = {2},
      pages = {1043-1051},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1710258.pdf},
      abstract = {Worldwide, it is known that there are 240 million children with a disability, which makes up for about one in every ten children. Such children tend to have accumulated problems such as lack of access to health, education, and social systems, besides the stigma and economic instability. Such barriers are escalated further in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by shortages of resources and geographic isolation. Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) has been developed into a well-known approach to bring about inclusion, empowerment, and the rights of persons with disabilities and is informed by the World Health Organization CBR Matrix.This study is a qualitative case study that explores the CBR approach in Zimbabwe by reviewing the case study of St. Daniel's Rehabilitation and Vocational Training Centre. The Centre was established to meet the needs of children with disabilities (CWDs) and their caregivers that were unaddressed at the time, making it an all-inclusive, family-focused model comprising health, education, livelihood, and advocacy. Information was extracted on the basis of organizational records, policy documents, and secondary literature, which gave information on the strategies employed on programs, partnerships, and their results.The results present four major lessons that have global relevance: the usefulness of holistic, family-focused rehabilitation; how economic empowerment can be integrated into rehabilitation services; how the partnership can be used to make it more sustainable; and how to balance local culture with attempts to uphold principles based on rights. Such lessons provide a plan to adopt CBR models in various economic and cultural environments. The paper concludes that the experience of Zimbabwe evidences how the policies and practices can be bridged through locally situated, multi-sectoral approaches and that this contributes towards the filming of inclusive societies. Wider cross-country learning and inculcation into international global disability models are advisable to empower CBR globally.},
      month = {August},
  }