Activities
The main activities that we aim to develop within the project “Partners for Independent Living Services” are:
- Research on the situation of persons who get spinal cord injuries annually in Romania
The research will use specific tools of sociological research and statistics in order to provide a detailed picture on the people who get spinal cord injuries annually in Romania. The need of this activity comes out from the lack of updated statistics in the field of disability. The most recent data quoted by the World Health Organization are from 1993.
The national annual statistics include people with spinal cord injuries in the large category of people with mobility disabilities. This provides too little information on the real size of the target group and the annual incidence of accidents leading to spinal cord injuries.
The conclusions of the research will provide the social sector in our country with a tool which is essential when it comes to creating public policies and services both by NGOs and governmental institutions.This provides a model that will hopefully be included later in the official annual statistics of the Ministry of Labour. As a result of the research, we will have more information on the number of persons who get spinal cord injuries annually, in Romania, including their gender, age, home counties, rural or urban environment, education level, employment, cause of the accident, type of services that they received after the spinal cord injury occurred, as well as the institution that provides these services.
The research report that presents statistical data regarding the situation of people who get spinal cord injuries every year, in Romania, will be printed in 200 copies and disseminated to NGOs and governmental institutions. Also, an event will be organized to promote research report and to provide more information to NGOs, governmental health institutions and persons with disabilities. The estimated date of completion for the research report is March 2017
- Conducting an awareness and visibility campaign at national level on the prevention of spinal cord injuries and the possibility of independent living for wheelchair users
The awareness and visibility campaign will use as main tools radio and a TV spot, which will be broadcast nationally and regionally in Timis, Brasov and Neamt counties. During the campaign, printed and online informative materials on independent living services will also be disseminated among people with and without disabilities. The campaign will reach at least 4000 people who will find out more about the abilities of people with disabilities and the possibility of leading an independent life, with the support of Motivation Romania Foundation and the partners within the project. The campaign will run from July 2016 to December 2017.
- Early intervention services for independent living provided to at least 66 people with spinal cord injuries in Brasov, Neamt and Timis
Services will be offered by the three partner organizations within the project, by multiplying the intervention model used by Motivation Romania Foundation. This activity helps to increase the number of available social services for people with spinal cord injuries, essential early intervention services. At the same time, the number of people with spinal cord injuries who have access to essential social services will increase.
In order to run this activity, there will be bought and delivered equipment for the three partners within the project. These will improve the diversity and quality of the services, as well as the time needed to provide them and the satisfaction of the beneficiaries. These include:
– The MIRA system, which represents an innovative approach for the medical rehabilitation process and consists of translating repetitive movement of the patient (physical exercises) into an electronic format, as well as measuring and analyzing the physical parameters of the movement, to monitor the progress of the rehabilitation and to recommend new exercises.
– Current combine for electrotherapy – allows medical rehabilitation treatments for the disorders of muscular and nervous systems for people with spinal cord injuries.
Services will be provided in 2017 by a team of disability professionals including physiotherapists and trainers for independent living. Previously, the disability professionals from the teams of our partners will be trained by Motivation Romania Foundation staff to initiate and provide early intervention services of independent living for people with spinal cord injuries.
For updates on the progress of the activities, please visit the News section.
The project Partners for Independent Living Services runs from January 2016 to December 2017 and is co-financed by a grant from Switzerland through the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union. The total value of the project is 272.590 CHF, out of which 204.113,20 represents the financial support provided by the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme while the contribution of Motivation Romania Foundation contribution is of 68.476,80 CHF.
For more details on the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme, please visit www.swiss-contribution.ro and http://www.swiss-contribution.ch/romania.
This website does not necessarily reflect the position of the Swiss government. Responsibility for its content lies entirely with Motivation Romania Foundation.
