A training strategy for personnel working in developing countries

Throughout the world a common consensus has emerged that community based services offer the best prospect of meeting the needs of people with disabilities and their families. However the shift away from specialist centres and institutions has not been accompanied as yet by a reappraisal of the training required by personnel working in these new forms of services. This paper describes the training strategy which has been developed by the Community Based Rehabilitation Programme in Guyana, South America. This has three components. First, the identification of training needs of families and support workers, second, the production of video-based training packages on specific topics and third, the utilisation of available personnel to act as local tutors. This strategy has resulted in over 7000 CBR volunteers, health workers, teachers in mainstream schools, families and villagers having access to information and skills which otherwise they would be denied. An immediate priority in developing countries is to nurture the human resources required to develop and sustain this sort of training strategy and proposals for doing this are outlined.