Asha Bal Bikash Sewa (ABBS) – A day care centre for children with intellectual and physical disabilities

In Nepal, many families believe that bearing children with disability is a curse, stigmatising disability as a whole and forcing people with disability to live in the shadows. Asha Bal Bikash Sewa (ABBS) strives to remove this stigma and facilitate the integration of children and young adults with disabilities into mainstream society.

ABBS is a day care centre for special needs children. Established in 1993, with the support of Norwegian Missionary, ABBS began its first class with just three children. Today, ABBS has two care centres with over 100 children, one in Kathmandu and the other in Bharatpur, Chitwan. ABBS also runs the Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) centre in the remote district of Rukum. CBR facilitates the communal integration of disabled children and young adults by hosting workshops that train parents and the community to appropriately interact with people with disabilities.

The key aims and objectives of ABBS are:

• To develop basic life skills to improve the daily and acceptable level of social lives of all participating Children With Disability;
• To develop employable and entrepreneurial skills that better the livelihood opportunities of People With Disability;
• To provide awareness and maintain continuous engagement with concerned families in order to minimize risks that may occur to PWD during social integration post training;
• To aid people with disabilities in rural and needy communities with social integration and equalization of opportunities;
• To raise advocacy for persons with intellectual disability, and to create a paradigm shift for inclusive special needs education and its scope in academic and professional settings.

ABBS uses different therapies such as physiotherapy, music, hydro therapy, art therapy, and vocational training to help develop the physical and mental capabilities of children with disabilities and grooming them to be independent adults.

The children of ABBS is an example to the society that all children have talents and capabilities that make them special and unique in the world. ABBS hopes that the thinking of the society towards children with disabilities changes from a negative to a positive light where all children do not have to hide in the shadows but lead an inclusive life in all societies.