CBR Service Network Pioneer Honoured by Pakistan

Mrs. Farhat Rehman, director of the Rehabilitation Centre for the Physically Disabled (RCPD) at Peshawar, in the North-West Frontier Province, has been awarded the National Gold Medal, one of the highest civil awards, honouring the services of Pakistan's outstanding women.

During "Fatima Jinnah Year" (2003), Pakistan celebrated the life and work of the social activist sister of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Nominations were received for 18 outstanding women of Pakistan in various fields, and after a lengthy selection process the award of Fatima Jinnah National Gold Medals was made by President Musharraf in March 2004.

Farhat Rehman, an experienced physiotherapist, staff trainer, manager and development agent for community based rehabilitation (CBR) projects, has worked in voluntary welfare organisations for over 20 years in Peshawar and the region, practising physical therapy and training staff to multiply the availability of services. Working initially with physically disabled children, Farhat later broadened her activities to adults, and to education and vocational training with the support of her husband, Sibghat-ur-Rehman, who is highly experienced in the special education, integration and inclusion field. Their own NGO expanded its aims to improve disability-related provisions across the board, with community seminars on primary health care and disability prevention, using print and electronic media in public awareness programs on disability. [1] Many beneficiaries have been from neighbouring Afghanistan, disabled during the turbulence of the past two decades.

The RCPD's approach to CBR has necessarily been tailored to the strongly conservative traditions of the majority Pakhtun population of the North-West Frontier Province, where rural women normally observe purdah. [2] While changes in the traditional customs are a matter for local communities to decide, the lives of disabled women and girls are an issue to which Mrs. Rehman has given detailed attention. "They have least access to education, skills training, income-generating activities, transport and housing", she writes. "They also suffer from social disrespect, malnutrition, disease and ignorance, they are less likely to get married and mothers with disabilities face social stigma, poverty and isolation."

Some RCPD training activities specifically target safety measures and household skills so that disabled women can win the respect of their families and neighbourhood by sustaining the roles normally expected of them. [3] One outcome in 2000 was the formation of POWER (Promotion of Women Empowerment & Rehabilitation), a group of women with disabilities who are pushing back the barriers and working with local NGOs to promote the rights of all women, not only those with disabilities.

The need for coordinated efforts by voluntary organisations across the country led Farhat Rehman and her colleagues to initiate a National Disability Network, taking advantage of the growing use of e-mail in Pakistan during the 1990s. Partners in the Network now number 292 NGOs, in 91 towns and cities across the country, which are responsible for running more than 70 CBR projects with referral centres.

The characteristic response of Farhat Rehman to the national award, followed also by an award from the Provincial government, was that these honours belonged to the whole network of partners, donors, supporters and staff in voluntary work, who have joined together to build a better society across the length and breadth of Pakistan.

NOTES

[1] Annual Report 2003 of the Rehabilitation Center for the Physically Disabled (RCPD).

[2] F. Rehman (2001) Rehabilitation Centre for the Physically Disabled - Sharing CBR Experiences in a Unique Culture. http://www.daa.org.uk/e_tribune/e_2001_04.htm

[3] F. Rahman* (2001) Women with disabilities - cooking, fires and smoke. Boiling Point No. 46: 6-8. http://www.itdg.org/html/energy/docs44/bp46rahm.pdf

*In different publications the name has been transliterated as Rehman, or as Rahman.

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