Handicapped Rehabilitation Care FundTowards abating the handicapped distress [Archives:2003/643/Community]

By Mahyoub al-Kamali
Yemen Times Staff
About 15 handicapped-related projects are being studied by the Handicapped Rehabilitation Care Fund in Yemen in several governorates. Those projects have been granted by a number of charitable societies working in the field of serving those of special needs who are suffering from audio and visual handicap cases. This has been done in an attempt to reduce their sufferings along with improving their living standards and family circumstances.
The Handicapped Rehabilitation Care Fund has been currently implementing around 43 services projects in all governorates aiming basically at providing the handicapped with new skills and professions and facing challenges standing before them.
Assistance granted by the Fund and the projects it has been implementing do not cover all needs of the handicapped owing to the increased number of this social segment which amounts to two million people. The number of the handicapped in Yemen is increasing every year for reasons attributed to victims of land mines planted since the '60s in a number of regions during civil wars. These land mines are still there despite the national campaign of demining to rid the people of their danger.
Establishment of the Handicapped Rehabilitation Care Fund is product of the state's efforts for treatment of disability cases and care of incurable diseases.
The government has for this reason established a number of funds as part of the economic reform program. For each fund it has allotted certain budgets stipulated in the state's general budget. The amount of each fund's budget is compatible with the task it is entrusted with and volume of the age-group planned for its care.
The Handicapped Rehabilitation Care Fund is somewhat different from other funds such as, the Social Development Fund, Fish and Agriculture Promotion Fund, and Improvement Cities Fund.
The Fund's responsibility is restricted to the humanitarian aspect of those of special needs where a number of the vital projects have been implemented during the first quarter of this year.
The Fund has provided health assistance to the handicapped including sending of 12 incurable diseases cases to be treated abroad. Around 80 cases have been treated inside the country and 34 wheelchairs, 45 hearing aid pieces, and two ringing sets for those suffering from hearing handicap have been provided for them.
Sources at the fund reported that the fund managed to cure 11 cases with natural means and helped 90 disables to obtain easy loans to establish small professions financed by the government and the Arab League. The easy loans granted to the handicapped aim basically at finding multi-source family income enough for the handicapped to live away from poverty, unemployment and diseases.
Official statistics at the fund said that, more than 450 handicapped-related cases were treated last year. Among those cases, 126 serious surgical operations were successfully performed. In addition to this, 4 state-of-art equipment for sucking liquids from the brain have been supplied by the Handicapped Rehabilitation Care Fund. The Fund continues its care and rehabilitation of the handicapped for granting them encouraging opportunities for life and survival.
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