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From
1998 - 2000, USC worked with a local organization,
the Association for the Welfare of People with Disabilities - Bangladesh,
AWPD-B.
Working together, they trained 206 teachers
from 32 centres. Many of these teachers were actually parents of youth
with disabilities. Training included course in physical and mental disabilities,
as well as educational techniques, income-generating possibilities for
people with disabilities and the rights of people with disabilities.
There was a basic recognition that it was important to keep youth with
their families and to provide income-generating training to these youth
so that they could more fully participate as valued family members. To
that end, a three-fold program was developed - to train teachers of youth,
to then have those teachers train the youth in terms of general skills,
and more specifically, income- generating skills, and to provide revolving
loans, support and guidance in starting income-generating ventures.
Income generating ventures concentrated mainly on foods and candy production,
bamboo cane work, weaving, spinning, vegetable gardening and raising chickens.
The benefits were many. Program participants received the training they
needed and the loans and other support necessary to become self- employed.
This benefited of each of those individuals as the family income increases
and more food is actually produced for the family as well. The training
provided for the teachers will be used for many hundreds of other participants,
and the revolving loan program allows more and more individuals access
to the resources they need to become self-sufficient.
This project
is still on-going and for more information on it and other USC projects,
please check out the USC web-site.
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