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Effectiveness of training support to rehabilitation workers of community development organizations in Bangladesh
Abstract
The opportunities for people with disabilities in Bangladesh to participate in the development components of communities is very limited. There are a small number of organizations that provide training to community development organizations on disability issues. To strengthen the capacity of training organizations on disability issues, there is a need to study the effects of training delivery to these participating organizations, and their target population. The major objective of this study was to assess the impact of a 3-month disability-training course on the retention of appropriate knowledge by 'Community Handicap and Disability Resource Persons (CHDRP)' in Bangladesh. The training was provided by the Centre for Disability in Development (CDD), founded in 1996 as a non-government Bangladeshi development organization. Its mission is to equalize opportunities for people with disabilities through integration of disability issues into mainstream development activities. A quasi-experimental test-retest research design was used. Participants' knowledge post-course was compared to that after working in the field for six to twelve months. Two research instruments were used. One involved a selection of test items from 3 of 14 training modules; the second, a set of three case studies with quantifiable answers that addressed participants' application of knowledge. Data was collected from a sample of 44 persons who had completed all training requirements, and had a minimum of six-months field work experience with PWDs. Participants were 55% male and 45% female; 50%, aged 15 to 26 years, and 50%, aged 27 to 33+.
The findings suggested that: a) older respondents retained knowledge better than younger respondents; b) male respondents retained knowledge better than females, while female respondents applied their knowledge better than males in the case study tests; c) a higher level of education upon entry to training has a positive effect on respondents' knowledge retention and application; d) spending regular time in a week on disability work has a significant effect on knowledge retention and application, as is among respondents with previous health experience; and, e) follow-up visits to organizations where trained participants worked had an impact on practical orientation of client handling, but no effect in retaining participants' knowledge and application.
Submitted by
Sazzad Hossain, Graduate Student, Critical Disability Studies, York University, Ontario, Canada;
Email: shossain66@yahoo.com
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