The Visionaries

15

INCLUSIVENESS

The Association of People with Disability (APD)

HCLTech Grant Project:

Cot to Community: A comprehensive rehabilitation approach

for people with Spinal Cord Injury (PwSCI)

India has 1.5 million spinal cord injury cases

with 15,000 cases added annually. Sixty to

seventy per cent of these are from poor villages

and in between 16 and 30 years. e HCLTech

Grant Project in rural Karnataka aims to

provide community reintegration for poor,

rural PwSCIs by optimising their functional

independence through comprehensive

rehabilitation including physical, psychological,

social, and vocational services and creating an

accessible and inclusive environment to enhance

their quality of living.

‘One day at a job site I fell from a 70-foot building, leaving me with a spinal

cord injury. My future was uncertain: I lay in bed, waiting for life to fade

away. A community staffer from APD told me about a specialized spinal

cord rehabilitation center. At the center, not only did I grow physically

stronger, but I also underwent a remarkable mental transformation. I

participated in the TCS Marathon under the category of champions with

disabilities. I also exercised my right to vote and obtained my UDID card.

From arriving on a stretcher, I triumphantly left the rehabilitation center,

walking with the assistance of a KAFO (knee-ankle-foot orthosis) and a

walker. APD helped me get a job as a food delivery partner, and I am now

physically and financially independent. Thanks to APD, I have moved from

‘‘cot to community’’’—Harshvardhan

• Structured rehabilitation

services to 2962 PwSCIs

• Sensitization and capacity

building of 33000 stakeholders

HCL

Grant

Recipient

Health,

2022