Workshop "Assessment of the Professional Needs of CBR Organisations" at the AAU

May 22^nd 2012

Nelson Mandela Building
Room 209
AAU

Number of participants (33 plus 5 staff members):

Staff members:

Dr. Alemayehu Teklemariam Haye, MA (AAU)
Yirgashewa Bekele Abdi, MA (AAU)
Moges Abey Mekonnen, MA (AAU)
Mag. Tobias Buchner (UV)
Mag.^a Michelle Proyer (UV)

Welcome session by Prof. Tirussew Teferra Kidanemariam. Prof. Tirussew highlights the importance of cooperation between university and work in the field. Dr. Alemayehu and Yirgashewa open the workshop - stress the importance that this is an assessment only!
Michelle presents the outlines of RESPOND-HER.
After that the following issues are raised by the audience:

• Why only focus on higher education?
• Remark on the physical accessibility of the room, where the workshop is held (second floor without lift - no other possibility at AAU)

9:30 am to 12:00 am:
Group work

1:00 pm to 2:20 pm:
Presentations

First Group

DPOs (2 participants)

• ENAB - Ethiopian National Association for the Blind from Woliso (100 km from Addis Ababa)
• Talk about main activities
• Challenge that government's answers/activities are very slow
• ECDD - Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development (funded by Finnish government)

Second Group

Parents (6 participants)

Have come with different organizations.

Third Group

CBR-Workers (12 participants)

• Participants from different organizations
• Mostly women in this group
• Raise problems from different perspectives

Fourth Group

CBR-Coordinators (13 participants)

Until 3:15 pm:
Discussion

Issues raised (summary):

• CRWs offer to act as lecturers at university to share experiences from the field
• There is no uniform training guideline for CRWs
• Research Center on CBR would be needed
• A lot of stakeholders talked about their daily experiences and practices (such as mother-to-mother and door-to-door counseling)
• CRWs only get 10 to 20 days training which is considered as not enough
• Content of training at university level and who should decide on its design
• University should provide exchange platform (threshold practice and research) otherwise graduates lack knowledge that can be applied in the field (sometimes BA-Graduates are in charge of coordinating CBR but have little or no practical experience)
• Enforce/strengthen networking: CBRs, DPOs and University
• Problem: persons with disabilities sometimes have to travel long distances to get services (high prevalence of being raped on the way!)
• Fade out: limited duration of CBR programmes (only one year) is not enough!

Example: Mother wished to share her experiences with everybody

Her son used to be unable to walk. He used to crawl as there were no assistive devices available. Due to CBR he managed to learn how to walk and will soon finish his first degreee at AAU. His mother is afraid of what might happen after he graduated and cannot find a job.

Wrap up and closing words:
Dr. Alemayehu Teklemariam Haye, Yirgashewa Bekele Abdi, Tobias Buchner

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