Inclusive Education and Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities

Implementing Partner: Handicap International Belgium

Funding Period: January 2009 – December 2010

Amount: $280,000

Purpose: Partner with people with disabilities (PWD), their families, and community. Employ medical, educational, socioeconomic, and advocacy interventions that improve the quality of life of PWDs, their families, and communities.

Objectives

• Build the capacity of the Lao Disabled People Association to design, implement, and monitor interventions that support employment and economic opportunities for people with disabilities
• Provide people with disabiltiies with better chances to access formal employment opportunities in Vientiane Capital and Savannakhet City
• Improve access to credit for people with disabilities and increase their participation in income-generating activities
• Educate employers and the general public on PWD’s right to work and the skills they can bring to the workplace

Comprehensive Orthotic Services Development in Lao PDR

Implementing Organization: Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE)

Funding Period: December 2010 – November 2013

Amount: 1,429,568

Purpose: Continue the development of rehabilitation services delivered by the National Rehabilitation Centre, with specific focus on improving the prescription and manufacturing of orthotic devices.

Objectives

• Educate clinical teams in Lao PDR on a wider range of proven alternate orthotic devices; increase available componentry
• Conduct training for therapists in the field of physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and prosthetics/orthotic
• Improve the abilities of clinical staff to provide orthotic services by increasing their knowledge of prescriptions and comprehensive treatments
• Ensure that service users are informed of the services and their rights to access those services, and encourage them to be more involved in evaluation of services
• Improve data collection, storage, and analysis at the National Rehabilitation Centre in order to improve service provision
• Provide more than 100 people annually with orthoses devices; provide devices free of charge for those who are unable to pay

In Vientiane Capital, Vientiane Province, and Savannakhet Province, USAID works to break down barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing employment opportunities within their communities. The project strives to bolster the capacity of its local partner disabled persons organizations (DPO), the Lao Disabled People Association (LDPA), to design, implement, and monitor interventions that will increase employment and economic opportunities for people with disabilities. The association will also be tasked with advocating for people with disabilities' right to work.

During the life of the project, Handicap International Belguim will continue to work with LDPA, and with people with disabilties themselves to (a) facilitate self-employment opportunities for people with disabilities; (b) eliminate barriers—physical, procedural, social— that prevent people with disabilities from working in more formal employment settings; and (c) foster a greater awareness among employers and the general public of the right of people with disabilities to work, as well as their ability to do so.

USAID funds a second project in Lao PDR that works with the National Rehabilitation Centre (Government of Lao PDR, Ministry of Health) as the only providers of prosthetic and orthotic services in Lao PDR. This project is working to integrate best practices into rehabilitation service provision and to provide training to existing national staff in the field of prosthetic and orthotics, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. The project conducts public awareness programs to inform communities of the availability of services, and it encourages service users to provide feedback on the services they receive.

This project also provides orthotic devices free of charge to those who are unable to pay, it also covers travel and food expenses to individuals in need so they can access the services.