Physiotherapy for children with disabilities in Lebanon

Enable participation in everyday life

Yusuf is five years old and sits in the courtyard of the shelter that is his family's new home since they fled Syria. Yusuf watches his two siblings play and cavort and would dearly love to join in. At least he has been able to sit or take his walker for a spin around the courtyard on his own for a few months now. This is because the boy suffered a brain injury in early childhood, which led to movement disorders and a neurodevelopmental delay. Only through targeted physiotherapy, which leads to a reduction in spasticity and improves the little boy's postural and balance skills, is he able to sit upright. The walker helps him to move independently. Recently, Yusuf has also been practising taking his first steps on his own with custom-made orthoses. The physiotherapists help him with this. His increasing independence enables him to participate in the daily life of his family.

Background

When the Syrian civil war began in 2011, about 1.5 million Syrians fled to neighbouring Lebanon (UNHCR, 2021). Lebanon has thus taken in the most Syrian refugees in relation to its total population. Since 2019, the country has been suffering from an economic crisis and increasing national debt. The Lebanese currency is increasingly losing value while the cost of living is rising. The country is barely able to take care of the large number of refugees. Lebanese residency policies make it difficult for people from Syria to obtain legal status, so 78 per cent of them are living in the country without official permits. This in turn limits their access to work, education and health care (Human Rights Watch, 2021). They are therefore not entitled to regular health care. According to the UN Refugee Agency (2021), 89 per cent of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line. Thus, very few of them have the financial means to afford medical treatment. Children with disabilities who have special needs and require special medical and therapeutic treatment usually do not receive it. But it is precisely these girls and boys who gain more quality of life and independence from therapeutic measures, which in turn eases the burden on the families in their precarious situation.

The good deed

With today's good deed, you will enable a Syrian refugee child in Lebanon to receive one minute of physiotherapy. In a physiotherapeutic and socio-educational practice, girls and boys with physical or mental disabilities are treated free of charge. The children receive therapy tailored to their needs, with which they learn skills to cope with their everyday lives in the best possible way. By improving the body's ability to move and function, they learn, among other things, how to sit, stand or walk. In addition, the children learn to do everyday things such as eating, brushing their teeth or putting on their shoes independently. This gives them the greatest possible independence in everyday life. Their motor skills improve, their coordination skills increase, they gain more freedom, self-confidence and autonomy. The therapy improves the lives of the girls and boys and supports their rehabilitation.