A pioneering training seminar on occupational therapy for a variety of specialists working with directly and on behalf of children with disabilities was organised by World Vision in partnership with the Uzbek Republican Center of Social Adaptation of Children (URCSA) in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, last month.

"Occupational Therapy is totally new to Uzbekistan, but is a crucial profession that seeks to search and build on a person’s abilities, rather than their disability. The participants of this training have a unique opportunity to be pioneers of Occupational Therapy in Uzbekistan while providing children with disabilities the chance to grow and develop to their full potential. Furthermore, it will ease the integration of children with disability into their families and communities," said Hans Bederski, World Vision Uzbekistan Program Director.

According to a 2005 Unicef report, the number of children registered as disabled is 125,000. Unicef cites a significant increase from their 1996 report is due to a greater recognition of disability and greater number of parents seeking assistance, rather than an actual increase in impairments.

’The purpose of the training is to create a group of specialists who will be able to further promote the development of occupational therapy in Uzbekistan,’ said Ekaterina Mishina, one of the trainers from the Russian Association of Occupational Therapists that conducted the seminar.

A variety of professionals working alongside children with disabilities such as teachers, doctors, psychologists, specialists on mental defects and physical handicaps, university professors and social workers were amongst those that took part in the training, and thus ensuring a wide number of direct and indirect beneficiaries of the training.

’We obtained results above all expectations. The chain has been activated, the trainees are immediately using new skills in practice, and teachers are immediately passing on the knowledge to their students,’ Mishina said.

The major output of the training is changed attitudes and thinking of the trainees regarding children with disabilities. One of the trainees, university professor Fahriddin Shakirov said, ’Students should know, that there are children with special needs and that there are opportunities to help them’.

’An occupational therapist teaches and adapts people with disabilities to live and orientate themselves in their environment and community, and, most of all, to be full members of the society,’ said URCSA expert Ella Nazarova.

The training was held in the framework of the Children in Crisis Rescue Project and is funded by World Vision Support Offices in Singapore, Japan, Korea and Malaysia. The ’Children in Crisis Rescue Project’ aims to safeguard children’s right to survival and development for 320 disabled children in residential care and to re-integrate these children with their families and communities wherever possible. This includes training of institutional caregivers to enhance the individual development of children, a feeding program to ensure adequate nutritional intake and counselling for parents in preparation of re-unification with their children.