Stories from the Field

The Sudanese Association for Disability and Rehabilitation in Fasher area, north of Darfur region in Sudan was established in 1987. HCI relationship with SADR started in 2003 when HCI supported the development of the SADR’s library with books and training materials about small income generation activities.

With the help of HCI, SADR has now 2865 members. 2120 members in Fasher area, 127 in Malit area, 385 in Kabakbiyeh area, and 297 in Ala’et area. All in Northern Darfur state. The majority of the members are physically challenged, and the remaining are either blind (207 members) or deaf (336 members.)

This extraordinary outreach and membership expansion was further supported by HCI. In 2007, a micro-credit scheme targeting unemployed physically-challenged people was initiated. The project provided the beneficiaries with needed training and technical assistance as well as seed funding over two phases to manage and run a micro-credit scheme to provide beneficiaries with loans to setup small income generation activities. In 2008, HCI provided SADR with mobility equipments for its physically-challenged members.

In January, HCI launched The Building Opportunities for Sudanese Disabled project to further support SADR’s 2865 members with special needs and its 5110 registered beneficiaries, also with special needs. This project touches on the economic aspect of the lives of people with disability, and this is often either absent or invisible as a need to the community they exist in. The project is also designed to provide aid for the community as a whole, not only the physically challenged. The increased employment and income generated by vocational training, on-the-job support, and business development services that the project provides, also gives an economical boost to the community. The project combines vocational training, on-the-job support, and targeted micro-grants offered to the community members and disabled people.

In this phase, groups (each consisting of 10 pre screened and identified disabled individuals by HCI and its local partner SADR) are formed and receiving training concerning micro-business management; each group is responsible for the management and follow-up of the initiatives submitted. Each group has a group leader, a secretary and a financial leader to facilitate the loans/grants scheme moderation in each site and credit collection. Initiatives are being developed by the people with disability to generate income. Feasible ideas will be provided with a combination of grants and loans, and they will be implemented.

Some of the initiatives being designed include: a refrigerator project (where the beneficiary has purchased a refrigerator to rent it out to other small business for storage and protection), a men’s wear workshop (where the beneficiary has purchased a sewing machine to make clothes) a wood chopping and coal production business (where the beneficiary has purchased the tools needed to chop wood and make coal for heating purposes), a school uniform workshop (where the beneficiary has purchased a sewing machine to make uniforms), a water station (where the beneficiary has purchased a carriage to sell water) a home based cafeteria, and a bean canteen.

Also In this phase the vocational skills of physically challenged individuals in the areas of Fasher, and Mahaliya northern Darfur has been improved.

Life in the south of Lebanon is not easy. In a country all too often ravaged by war it has suffered the most. Located along the Lebanese-Israeli border, one of the most volatile on earth, its residents live a life of uncertainty. In 2006 the simmering tension once again became full scale war almost without warning. The same could happen again. Southerners know this perhaps better than anyone else, and, as one can imagine, stress related mental disorders are widespread.

The scars of war are visible everywhere. Southern Lebanon is littered with unexploded landmines and cluster bombs. These, combined with injuries sustained during conflicts, mean that the South has a high number of physically challenged individuals. These individuals are severely limited in their opportunities. Again, it is war that is the main culprit, as it has prevented sustainable development and destroyed infrastructure. Services for the physically challenged are hindered by poor micro-economic conditions, as those areas which are the most economically depressed tend to also have high numbers of physically challenged victims of conflict. The result is very little support for the physically challenged, and a very poor state of accessibility.

Southern Lebanon suffers from high unemployment among the general population, and the physically challenged in particular have little chance of obtaining meaningful employment. Research indicates that 85 percent of landmine victims regard lack of employment opportunities and economic reintegration as their main concern. Insufficient access to training, education, and capital means they often lack marketable skills, making it extremely difficult for them to achieve economic independence. As long as this continues, the physically challenged will be unable to break the cycle of dependence that is extremely detrimental to their self-esteem and emotional well-being.

More than three years have passed since the end of the 2006 war, but the damage lingers. It has left a legacy of poverty and uncertainty to a region that is a stranger to neither. During the war between 1.2 and 4 million cluster munitions were dropped. About 40% of these cluster bomblets did not explode. Many of them have yet to be cleared, and they continue to kill and main. The bomblets have also severely damaged agriculture, rendering formerly fertile fields into virtual no-mans lands. Hundreds have been killed since the end of the conflict, and farmers take risks by continuing to work fields which have yet to be fully cleared. They do so because if they do not work the fields, they will become one more in a growing number of unemployed. Additionally, landmines are a part of daily existence. There are an estimated 150,000 landmines still deployed in Lebanon. The vast majority of minefields remain both unmarked and unfenced. Alongside cluster munitions they destroy both lives and livelihoods.

The impact of the landmine problem in southern Lebanon also includes issues of internally displaced people, basic services and socio-economic development. After the conflict, all humanitarian and development assistance efforts were hampered by the threat of mines, resulting in a lack of rehabilitation and resettlement areas, a lack of land for agriculture, an increase in costs of development, a deterrent to tourism and, of course, a devastating impact on people. Experience has shown that an integrated approach to a landmine/UXO and social rehabilitation problem in an affected country is necessary to achieve maximum efficiency, to reduce risk, and to achieve increased security. Additionally, an integrated response could address the problems of mine/UXO surveying, marking and clearance; terrain verification; and mine awareness in a coherent and coordinated manner.

HCI has had a long history of working to improve the lives of land mine and UXO victims in the region, we have collaborated since 1995 on numerous projects with local partner Tamkeen Association for Independent Living, which is a nonprofit organization that takes care of the disabled and works on their rehabilitation. Some of the many projects implemented by HCI include equipping the special education center, early intervention center and the physiotherapy treatment center for rehabilitation of disabled people (particularly landmine victims), securing emergency relief funds for those affected by the July 2006 war and the numerous conflicts the area has seen, a landmine and unexploded ordnance danger awareness program and a micro loan program for disabled people and their families among others.

HCI’s latest venture with Tamkeen is the Backyard Production Support project. The project provides complementary services to the farmers and entrepreneurs such as offering them seeds, soil fertilizers or any materials they may need -all free of cost - to improve their production, better manage their projects, and of course support their livelihoods as small scale farmers and entrepreneurs. The importance of this project lies in the fact that the beneficiaries are able to secure an income through micro farming and other enterprises close to or outside their homes, without the need to commute, placing them on the path towards self sustainability and improving their self esteem. We would like to share with you the stories of some of the individuals who benefited from the Agricultural Extension Project. Nasser Oubeid

Nasser Obeid is thirty seven years old; he lives in the Southern Village of Jibchit. He is the sole breadwinner to a family of eight children. He used to be a construction worker, but after stepping on a landmine he was disabled as a result of his injuries and was unable to continue construction work. Last year he started a small backyard farming and cow rearing project as a more feasible way for him to support his family given his current physical condition.

Since receiving HCI’s small grant Nasser’s backyard project has been very successful, he is aiming to buy ten thousand Carob plants in the near future.

Samih Nasser

Samih Nasser is forty five year old father of two daughters that have speech and hearing disabilities. He lives in the southern village of Deir Syrian. In 2001 he was injured by a landmine and as a result his left leg was amputated below the knee, he is still undergoing treatment and rehabilitation.

Samih used to own a small shop near his home that he was unable to continue running, this caused him a lot of anxiety, and he was eventually forced to close it down. HCI’s intervention has helped him operate a small farm near his home and given him hope that his family will have a better future.

Houssam Tabajah

Houssam Tabajah is thirty six years old and lives in the southern village of Kfartibnit. After a land mine accident he lost his leg and as a result of severe head trauma also lost his sight.

Thanks to HCI’s intervention he was able to successfully set up and operate a small kiosk that sells food items and snacks among other things. Houssam’s success has inspired him to dream of bigger plans for the future; his new goal will be to eventually set up a citrus farm and raise cows.

Frequent arrests, military raids, over 600 Israeli military checkpoints, severely restricted freedom of movement, and ever-expanding settlements occupying more and more land are all a part of life in the West Bank. Conflict, poverty, unemployment, and isolation have left its residents with an uncertain future. The physically and mentally challenged, who according to WHO estimates make up 7-10% of the Palestinian population, are far from immune to these issues. To make matters worse, continued conflict, landmines, and political instability mean that the number of challenged individuals will continue to rise. They are subjected to societal prejudice and lack of opportunities. Discrimination against the physically and mentally challenged is widespread, and extends into the educational system. This prejudice, combined with the very poor state of accessibility throughout the West Bank due to hilly geography and lack of reliable public transport, means that young, challenged children are often denied the chance to attend school.

Children, in particular, are sensitive to the traumatic events which characterize life in the West Bank, and it affects their development acutely. Disabled children may be faced with two challenges, both the physical handicap of, for example, a hearing impairment, and the emotional damage caused by the sudden loss of a family member due to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Displacement and an uncertain future are felt by children as well as adults. They are deprived of the sense of stability and social cohesion that is critical for healthy psychosocial development.

The Palestinian Authority does not have the resources to aid these children. Funding for specialized schools is not readily available, and the economic crisis throughout the West Bank means that resources remain scarce. Restricted movement and occupation have taken their toll on the West Bank economy, and in turn on the funds available to the Palestinian Authority. This means that it is up to Non-Governmental Organizations like Human Concern International to fill the gap, and give the children the education they need for a real chance at a fulfilling life.

Without education physically and mentally challenged children are often doomed to a life of dependency and poverty. To prevent this from happening they must be reached at as young an age as possible. Numerous studies have shown that early childhood development is crucial for success later in life. In light of these facts HCI, along with local partners like the Vocational Rehabilitation Workshops Society for Girls (VRWSG), have established a unique kindergarten in Bethlehem targeted specifically at physically and mentally challenged children with a special focus on the hearing impaired; there is much work to be done in the field of providing early education opportunities for special needs children in Palestine and The Human Concern Kindergarten (which was given its name by the local partners in recognition of HCI’s efforts in the region) is proud to be one of the pioneers that provides these children with a much needed sense of normalcy and stability that is sorely lacking in the lives of West Bank children. It gives them the confidence they need to face the enormous challenges which await them later in life.

The school has a capacity of forty children. That is forty Palestinian children who are given a safe haven, specialized training, and a chance at a better future. Teachers trained in sign language give hearing impaired children the chance to fully communicate. Furthermore, the school not only aids the hearing impaired, it is also fully accessible to the physically challenged, and has staff ready and able to deal with whatever difficulty the children may face, whether is it physical or mental. The school is fully equipped, and all facilities (rooms, entrance/exits, door, kitchen, toilets, playground, etc) are approved by the Ministry of Higher Education as fully accessibilities for children with mental, hearing, or physical impairments. Its staff includes counselors specially trained to work with deaf and mute pre-school children, as well as social workers capable of providing psychosocial support.

Helping children is critical for the future of the West Bank. It not only aids the children themselves, it also aids their parents and families through the activities organized by the kindergarten. It teaches children to become self-reliant, which will in turn relieve future financial burdens placed on family budgets already stretched to the breaking point by restricted movement and a depressed economy. Outreach activities inform parents of the importance of educating their children, and sign language training is given to the families of deaf and mute children so that they are able to fully communicate together. The kindergarten has helped boost the local Bethlehem economy by creating nine new full-time jobs. It not only symbolizes a chance at a better life for the children, it also represents hope for the future of the community.

Social workers employed by the kindergarten help to reduce the stigma that challenged children face amongst their fellow Palestinians. By working with local residents they encourage greater acceptance of physically and mentally challenged children throughout the community. This is done through actions such as the training of government workers in the use of sign language so that they are better able to communicate with hearing impaired children. The kindergarten itself ensures that challenged children meet others who face the same difficulties, and lets them know that they are not alone in their struggle. It is a bright spot in the otherwise bleak lives of children who are not often given the chance to succeed. Little by little we are working towards the day when these children will no longer be outsiders; a day when they will be able to contribute to the building of a more prosperous, accepting Palestinian society.

Two jobs were created at the Al Mona center for hearing imparities & mental development in Tripoli the week that Yazan, a member of the fundraising team in Canada visited the HCI team in Lebanon. The center, a subsidiary of the Charity of the Islamic Women Society was where the first meal of HCI’s Farm to School program was served to schoolchildren in Lebanon. Farm to school brings healthy food from small local low-income farms to underprivileged school children at schools located in low-income areas. Vulnerable women, particularly widows and women with special needs are employed to prepare these meals and the targeted local farmers are given agricultural support and assistance to improve their economic stability. The center’s students were served a nutritionist designed meal of locally produced organic sautéed green beans and beef served with rice and a yoghurt salad, with an apple each for dessert. “The kids enjoyed the meal and were really happy to be able to play with each other and make new friends afterwards” Inaam Aloosh, the president of the CIWS told us as we toured the premises and witnessed the students happily engaged in their lessons despite the many challenges they are faced with. The Al Mona center has been a longtime local partner of HCI and hundreds of children with special needs have been able to benefit from many of the facilities secured by HCI such as equipment for testing hearing abilities and a psychomotricity room that helps the children coordinate the movement of their bodies with their brains.

We drive away from Tripoli northwards until neighborhoods are replaced by slums; grimy and bare concrete homes in disrepair randomly layered over each other and navigable only by uneven dirt paths. We have reached Beddawi, our second destination for the day. We are here to visit Mona; a widow and a single mother of nine. Her son Abdel Hadi is one of the many orphans aided by HCI’s child sponsorship program. She runs a tiny dimly lit grocery shop which also includes a sewing machine in the corner that allows her to double as a seamstress “I am barely able to make ends meet on my own; Beddawi is a very poor area, there is hardly any work here, I don’t know what I would have done without the child sponsorship program” she says to us as we sit in her modest home waiting for Abdel Hadi and his siblings to arrive from school (despite her difficult situation, she makes sure that all the children get an education).

When we enquire about how Abdel Hadi has been doing, she tells us that thanks to the his sponsorship he has recently been able to have surgery done in one eye to enable him to see better and will have the other one operated on soon. When he eventually arrives he greets us shyly and tells us about his day at school, he looks healthy and happy; it was worth the long bumpy journey to see his radiant smile. As he runs off to have lunch with his siblings we also remember that we have to head out to our next destination as well.

El Minieh is our next destination; we are here to visit Houriyeh, a widowed mother of two and a beneficiary of one of HCI’s micro credit programs. She welcomes us warmly and serves us chilled glasses of delicious fresh yogurt and tells us the story of how the yogurt came into being; “three years ago after my husband’s death, it was up to me to take care of the children on my own. I had heard of small microcredit loans that were being made available by HCI through a local partner and I decided to apply for one and buy a cow”. With this cow she was able to set up a small household dairy business that supplies the local community with fresh milk and yogurt. In addition to this, the manure produced by the cow is also bought by local farmers to be used as a natural fertilizer. Her cow eventually gave birth and she was able to sell the calf and settle her loan. It is amazing to witness firsthand how such a small sum of money has been able to impact this family’s life so positively; she tells us that thanks to this one cow she has been able to provide for her children and complete the construction of the house that her husband had started building before his death. We are impressed to learn that the yoghurt salad that was served at the first Farm to School meal in Tripoli was made of yoghurt provided by Houriyeh.

Our final destination for the day is in the Mhamra agricultural area; it is close to the Nahr Al Bared camp and was heavily affected by stray shelling from the 2007 Nahr Al Bared Conflict resulting in the loss of many harvests which dealt a crippling blow to the local farmers that are already caught in vicious cycles of debt. We are here to visit Khodor, one of these local farmers. Khodor and his six brothers own a small farm that they struggle to survive from.

He tells us that he has been engaged for about six years now and will continue to be unable to get married until he manages to save up enough money to build a small home for his future wife and himself to start a family in. Right now the siblings and their families live together in a small modest house on the farm and their priority is keeping the farm productive as it is their only source of income. As part of HCI’s agriculture extension services project, Khodor’s land is being reviewed by a team of volunteer agricultural engineers to determine what can be done to improve its economic stability. It has been a long day, we have seen a lot. It is time for us to head back to Beirut to prepare for the next day.

We head southwards towards Nabatiye the next day to visit another one of HCI’s local partners: Tamkeen Association for Independent Living, which is a nonprofit non sectarian and non political entity that takes care of the disabled and works on their rehabilitation. They have been around since 1987 and HCI has had a long and active history with them: some of the many projects implemented by HCI include equipping the special education center, early intervention center and the physiotherapy treatment center for rehabilitation of disabled people (particularly landmine victims), securing emergency relief funds for those affected by the July 1996 war and the numerous conflicts the area has seen, a landmine and unexploded ordnance danger awareness program and a micro loan program for disabled people and their families among others. HCI’s latest project with Tamkeen is to provide agricultural backyard production assistance to the physically disabled; the importance of this project lies in the fact that the handicapped are able to secure an income through micro farming outside their houses, without the need to commute placing them on the path towards self sustainability and improving their self esteem. Until now 10 people with special needs have been given support via HCI to help improve the viability of their backyard farms.

As we are shown around the center we meet Ali and Abdallah. Nine year old Ali was born without legs and until a few weeks ago had spent his entire life moving around on a wheelchair. Now, thanks to artificial limbs secured by Tamkeen, he is overjoyed to be learning to walk for the first time in his life. Eight year old Abdalla, on the other hand lost his leg a few weeks ago when he inadvertently stepped on an unexploded ordnance while playing in a field near his home. He too will be provided with an artificial limb once his injuries fully heal. As we visit the different classrooms and meet more of the special needs children, we can’t help but admire the spirit the challenged show in the face of adversity and a feel a deep sense of gratitude and respect towards all the individuals and organizations that dedicate their time and efforts to make positive change and empowerment come into fruition.

As we drive Yazan to Beirut, we excitedly discuss new ideas that have started to bud as a result of our collective experiences coming together on the field. The visit has come to an end. We say our goodbyes and though we head off in different directions, our goals remain the same.

HCI team in Jordan was busy last month in Jordan launching its new initiative for Iraqi refugees living in Jordan: the Aid for Change initiative, aiding vulnerable people with the aim to change their lives through self-help and self-directedness. This new initiative will be implemented in partnership with the Jordan-based New Development Organization. It will build on HCI’s previous initiatives supporting Iraqi refugees in Zarqa, Jordan since the year 2007.

For poor Iraqi refugees, every day is about finding enough food, water and other basic necessities to survive: widows cannot afford to send their children to school and pay for their learning materials, when they can barely manage to survive on occasional in-kind assistance from their neighbors; the unemployed never have a chance to learn new skills if they spend all day making a living on the black market; and, poverty-stricken communities are too busy looking for food to rebuild infrastructure vital for redevelopment.

And to top all this, these poor refugees have to cope with all their feelings of grief, depression, disquiet sleep, and loss of appetite; which are normal human reactions to an abnormal incident and not the other way round. What they are going through is not a weakness in their characters or lack of faith, but they are alone and isolated in their suffering. The psychological demoralization has also shaken all the values and hopes that they carried.

HCI’s program will help low-income and needy Iraqi mothers, Iraqi with special needs to secure basic necessities for themselves and their families, such as food and non-food items. At the same time, this program will help them secure an income by themselves, so they can break out of the poverty trap and build sustainable future for the entire family either in Jordan or in their home country, Iraq.

HCI’s program will pay participants with basic necessities to build (or rebuild) their lives. Basic aid supplies, such as food and non-food items, given to the right people, at the right time, make it possible for them to devote time and energy to development opportunities. HCI’s assistance is to give Iraqi refugees the chance to take the first steps out of the poverty trap, thus to establish a life for themselves and their families.

The philosophy of this project is to unleash the potentials of vulnerable Iraqi refugees to establish themselves and help their families and their overall communities, while securing much needed necessities through relief aid. When these potentials are unleashed and made use of, these refugees will feel that they are able of bread wining, keeping a shelter, and belonging to an extended social group. All these satisfy the natural human hierarchy of needs, thus putting the mental/psychological state back on track.

Through this project, widows will be assisted to develop viable home-based businesses. They will be compensated with basic necessities to devote time and energy to develop such businesses. People with special needs will learn new skills and develop viable micro businesses that will help them build sustainable future. Women will be trained on practical topics such as parental and child health. Children will be assisted to stage a play addressing issues such social cohesion and peaceful coexistence. Children will organize a carnival and will be given educational materials and taught about issues concerning pluralism, gender equality, tolerance and non-violence.

This is what we termed as aid for change, aiding vulnerable people with the aim to change their lives through self-help and self-directedness.

“It is like a celebration of being accepted, being taken care of and being supported,” commented one of the Iraqi refugees in Zarqa, Jordan, who was receiving medical equipments provided by HCI. She is one of many Iraqis benefited from HCI long-time project helping Iraqi refugees, particularly those with special needs, with relief supplies, medical equipments and supplies and nutrition support.

Here in Jordan, the villas and fine cars of well off Iraqis in suburban west Amman belie the circumstances of less advantaged Iraqi “guests,” who settled into congested, relatively anonymous urban neighborhoods alongside low-income Jordanians. Without residency permits and unable to work legally, Iraqis are often fearful of seeking out official forms of assistance. They largely confine themselves to their homes because of economic constraints, disabilities and concerns about their legal status. Access to educational and health services remain limited. Their situation becomes ever more precarious, as meager resources dwindle and their future remains uncertain. They are struggling to hold their families together with very little means. They don’t know what is going to happen to them. Their current situation is grim, but they say there is no way they can go home. Home is where they saw the killing and kidnapping of loved ones, the destruction of their communities and the constant threat of violence, torture and extortion. Growing numbers are living at or below the poverty line. The resources of many families have dwindled to almost nothing and this creates concern about the simplest things, like how they will feed their children each night.

It is estimated that Jordan is hosting more than 500,000 Iraqi refugees, while the city of Zarqa is hosting large number of them; high number of them are known to be physically, psychologically and/or economically vulnerable. About two thirds of Iraqi refugees in Jordan are children and youth below the age of 24.

The project intends to serve 1000 vulnerable Iraqi refugees in the first year, including 200 refugees with mental or physical impairment and 200 children and youth below the age of 24. In its first phase, the project is working to enhance the standard of living of vulnerable Iraqi refugees, particularly persons with mental and physical impairment, female-headed households, elderly and children. The project is also working to build the capacity of local CBOs and social workers to provide at-home individualized support and individualized relief aid for vulnerable Iraqi refugees, particularly persons with mental and physical impairment.

During the holy month of Ramadan, HCI provided individualized relief aid for vulnerable Iraqis refugees with disability which include:

• Essential medical equipments for people with disability,
• Basic home maintenance/appliances that contribute to accessibility and mobility as well as capacity for independent living, and
• Food and nutritional aid.

This was preceded by capacity building activities for local CBOs and local social workers to provide at-home individualized support and individualized relief aid for people with disability using combination of theoretical training and field application. 10 women social workers developed systems and gained skills to provide at-home needs assessment and profiling. Over one week, social workers visited every beneficiary and assessed their needs on the ground.

Items distributed include: wheelchairs, crutches, bath seats, elevated chairs, toilet aid accessories, ramps, hearing aid accessories, medical mattresses, and other essential medical and accessibility supplies for people with disability.

HCI has been working with local partners, particularly HCI local partner New Development (NDEV), to assist Iraqi refugees in Jordan since 2005. HCI has extensive experience assisting refugees and displaces persons and promoting social cohesion in the region.