Skills Development through Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR)

1. Introduction
Livelihoods
Because ‘work’ and ‘employment’ tend to conjure up notions of a job with
a wage or salary, or self-employment or a business with an income, it is
more helpful in situations where these terms do not apply to use the term
‘livelihoods’ instead. ‘The world of work’ applies to paid jobs, self-employment,
and running a micro, small or medium enterprise, but it is less
applicable to situations in which someone engages in a range of survival
strategies involving different activities. This is especially the case in rural
areas. For example, a family livelihood strategy might involve raising a pig,
growing and selling vegetables, taking in washing and doing day labour in
the rice paddies.
Economic empowerment
What is the purpose of work? To earn income or to be more fulfilled as a
human being? When we speak of ‘economic empowerment’, what do we
mean? What are the factors that enable a person to succeed in business
and be empowered by the process? Clearly there is much more to be identified
by such an enquiry than the acquisition of technical skills alone. We
need to identify the factors which empower disabled people, and which
enable them to live more productive lives, with greater self-esteem and
respect from their community.
People with disabilities frequently experience a spiral of factors which
drive them into low expectations, low self-esteem, and low achievement
and which also affect the provision of services. Having few assets, they
frequently do not qualify for loans from financial institutions to invest in
enterprises. For many, the only option is to seek a loan from moneylenders
at exorbitant interest rates, thereby compounding their poverty.
Even when there are loans available, such as those offered by some selfhelp
schemes or by credit schemes such as the Grameen Bank, disabled
people are sometimes reluctant to borrow for fear of being driven into
debt. This again feeds into the low expectations of families that their disabled
family members cannot be economically productive, so they do not
invest in their education, which along with negative attitudes internalized
by people with disabilities themselves and a culture of charity perpetuates
the confining spiral.
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