Since the ICRC's first limb-fitting and rehabilitation centre opened in Kabul in 1988, five others have been set up in Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Jalalabad, Gulbahar and Faizabad. In 17 years of work, almost 69,000 disabled people have been registered by the organization and received physical rehabilitation. Over 55,000 artificial limbs, 60,000 braces, 105,000 crutches and 10,000 wheelchairs have been produced over the years at ICRC centres in Afghanistan.


Read the overview of activities.

But rehabilitation is only the first step down the long road to securing a place in society. In 1997 the ICRC initiated a range of new programmes aimed at reintegrating disabled people into the mainstream. They featured:

• material aid to help children get an education, including courses at home for children who can't go to school (almost 1,500 participants so far)
  
  
• helping young people find job training and keeping tabs on them throughout the process (over 1,100 beneficiaries so far)
  
  
• helping adults find a job (nearly 1,000 disabled adults have found jobs in this way, in addition to the 500 employees of the limb-fitting centres, all themselves disabled)
  
  
• microcredits to help individuals to start their own business.
  

The microcredit programme lies at the heart of the reintegration programme. Almost 4,600 people have already received these loans. To get a microcredit, a disabled person must present both a project and a budget for it. The programme's staff assess its feasibility, evaluate the budget and talk with the candidate to gauge his or her motivation.

If the project is judged viable, the ICRC does not actually dispense cash to the beneficiary but rather purchases the items required by the budget. The beneficiary then reimburses the ICRC, interest free, over a period of months, depending on the project and the budget.

Even if not all projects succeed, this is the most effective way to help disabled people once again become productive members of Afghan society. Recipients of microcredits are able to live independently of their families and of institutions of all sorts, which helps them gain confidence and once again feel like autonomous human beings.