| International Programs
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 In
1997, the Polus Center entered into the international arena by coordinating humanitarian
efforts in Central America aimed at addressing the long-term needs of people
with disabilities, particularly those individuals who lost limbs due to acts
of war, landmines and diseases. Polus has now worked for many years in developing
countries to promote social and economic justice for some of the world’s
most vulnerable groups.
The Polus Center has an established track record for
creating innovative and flexible person centered victim assistance programs,
including prosthetic clinics and distribution, job training and economic development,
leadership training, accessibility and barrier reduction projects, and the development
of the PLUSSA wheelchair manufacturing facility. Grassroots development projects
and mini-grants help people with disabilities create or maintain small businesses,
access educational opportunities, combat social stigma, and become re-integrated
into their communities in Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua and throughout the world.
Polus also helps to administer the Coffeelands Trust, a fund dedicated to providing
direct support to victims of conflict who live and work in coffee communities.
Our approach
Current projects
Victim assistance in Peru
Landmine Victim Reintegration in Northern Nicaragua
Case management services
in Colombia
Community-based rehabilitation
PLUSSA Wheelchair Manufacturing
facility
Walking Unidos prosthetic clinic
Vida Nueva prosthetic clinic
Other
initiatives by the Polus Center
Lobster Divers with Disabilities along the Miskito
Coast
Ethiopian Self-Empowerment Project
Ubuntu Association of Zambia
A City
for Everyone Access project
Disabilities Leadership Center
Volunteer Project – El Porvenir
Understanding Model Coherency Planning
OUR APPROACH
 Polus
Center services are based on program planning processes that involve local citizens
from diverse backgrounds, centered around the inclusion and empowerment of service
recipients. The Polus Center works with local communities and grassroots organizations
to design programs based on the information gained through face-to-face interviews,
ensuring that programs are based on an understanding of what is most important
and relevant to the people that receive the services. This approach, based on
model coherency planning, is essential for program sustainability and effectiveness.
This inclusive and responsive program planning method provides solutions that
are culturally appropriate and relevant to the lives of service recipients. More...
Some principles behind the Polus Center’s development work
include:
- People with disabilities participate in program planning and
implementation
- People with disabilities need valued social & economic
roles
- No expatriate staff, work with local leaders and partners
- Services
are person centered and flexible
- Emphasis on valued roles for people with
disabilities
- Programs must be sustainable
Some core principles (PDF,
2.9 Mb)
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current projects
 Victim Assistance in Peru
With support from the U.S. State Department
Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, the Polus Center began work in 2009
in collaboration with Contraminas (Centro Peruano de Acción contra las
Minas Anti-Personal) and local Peruvian service providers to identify and interview
landmine victims in their local communities in various mine affected areas throughout
Peru. The project includes training, economic demonstration projects and distribution
of mobility aids. The Victim Assistance Training and Coordination Project raises
the profile of landmine victims and people with disabilities and begins to break
down social barriers to inclusion. It also lays the groundwork for an effective
and holistic victim assistance rehabilitation program for Peru. More...
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 Landmine Victim Reintegration Project in Nicaragua
Nicaragua and border areas
of Honduras continue to feel the impact of the Nicaraguan conflict that left
these areas heavily contaminated by landmines. The need is greatest in rural,
border areas where the majority of landmine incidents occurred, including 15
casualties in 2007 . In 2008 the Department of State, Office of Weapons Removal
and Abatement and the Polus Center worked together to provide vital assistance
to landmine victims in Central America. 33 landmine victims received a variety
of services, including mobility aids, small business assistance, employment and
education. In 2009, the Polus Center continued community based rehabilitation
services to landmine victims leading to their full integration into community
life. The Landmine Victim Reintegration Project will provide 170 direct services
to landmine victims. LVRP provides sustainable income for landmine survivors
and their families, which can help them succeed in that job, pulling themselves
and their communities out of poverty. LVRP also emphasizes the importance of
using universal design, which provides access for everyone, not just people with
disabilities, and helps landmine victims and their families reintegrate into
and actively participate in community life.
More...
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 Victim Assistance in Colombia
Landmines displace citizens by
mining villages and farms and then mining houses and roads to prevent their return.
Landmines and improvised explosive devices (IED’s) are a persistent problem
throughout Colombia affecting 31 out of 32 departments. However, they disproportionately
affect coffee growing areas. Coffee workers and others involved in agriculture
are particularly vulnerable because not only are their regions at increased risk
of mine incidents, but because rehabilitation and emergency medical services
are not accessible and there is no existing framework for coordinating their
rehabilitation. There are thousands of survivors of conflict in need of emergency
medical care, physical and psychological rehabilitation, and social and economic
reintegration. The Colombian Landmine Victims’ Outreach Program assists
victims of conflict in Colombia’s coffee regions, continuing an innovative
public-private partnership with the Federacion Nacianal De Cafeteros (FNC) and
in-country rehabilitation and vocational service providers to ensure the physical
rehabilitation and economic self-sufficiency of victims in coffee-growing regions
of Colombia. The goal of the Landmine Victims’ Outreach Program is to assist
landmine victims who reside in the coffee regions of Colombia to be better able
to access a full range of rehabilitation services and to increase income levels
through meaningful work. More...
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COMMUNITY-BASED REHABILITATION
 PLUSSA Wheelchair Outreach Project
The Central America Regional
Wheelchair Project began in 2004 through the support of a USAID grant from the
Leahy War Victim’s Fund. Within the first year of the project the Polus
Center opened PLUSAA (Programas Leones de Usuarios de Aparatus Auxiliarias) a
wheelchair manufacturing facility, staffed by local Nicaraguans, some of whom
are wheelchair-users themselves, in partnership with the La Salle Polytechnic
Institute.
By employing persons with disabilities in socially valued roles,
PLUSAA helps erase existing social stigmas that persons with disabilities are
unable to work or are a drain on their family. It also provides persons with
disabilities with the economic opportunities necessary to support their families.
PLUSAA also buys all of its raw materials from local sources. This means that
PLUSAA not only provides wheelchairs, but serves to stimulate the economy and
bring socially valued employment to the León. More...
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 Walking Unidos
Established in 1999, Walking Unidos manufactures
and fits prosthetic limbs and orthotics, provides prosthetic repairs, adjustments
and foot replacements. The project is governed and operated by the local community
and has a Board of Directors in León composed of community leaders. The
clinic has a full time staff, trained and hired by Walking Unidos in conjunction
with the Polus Center, many of whom use prosthetic devices themselves.
Walking
Unidos has provided services to thousands of people who have lost limbs. Its
reputation has spread throughout Nicaragua and through much of Central America.
People travel from all over the country to receive high quality, custom made
prosthetics and orthotics at little or no cost. For its 8th Anniversary in August,
the clinic was visited by Ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, who held a
banquet for program recipients and staff to congratulate them on their success
and achievements in making Nicaragua more accessible for everyone. More...
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 Vida Nueva Prosthetic Outreach Program
There is a great need
for community based rehabilitation services throughout Central America for the
thousands of people who have lost limbs to acts of war, natural disasters, inadequate
health care, diabetes and accidents. The lack of affordable and accessible rehabilitation
services has left many people permanently disabled, and without the means to
work and remain active within their community. The Vida Nueva Prosthetic Outreach
Program celebrated its grand opening on February 20, 2003 in Choluteca, Honduras.
The clinic provides custom made and fitted, high quality prosthetics and orthoics
at little or no cost to those who have lost limbs.
More...
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OTHER/PREVIOUS PROJECTS OF THE POLUS
CENTER
 Lobster Divers with Disabilities along the Miskito Coast
As
the coastal waters have become overfished, lobster divers—often without
proper equipment and basic scuba training—have been forced to go deeper
and deeper for longer periods of time. Spiny lobsters sell for $20 or more in
North American restaurants, yet divers, who risk their lives, often live below
the poverty line. This dangerous activity results in decompression sickness,
commonly known as the “bends”, in which nitrogen forms bubbles in
the blood as a diver ascends too quickly towards the surface. Decompression sickness
can result in sensory loss, joint problems, and paralysis. In communities such
as Puerto Cabezas and Dakara, dozens of divers are now no longer able to work,
support their families, and participate in the community. Lobster diving dominates
the economy and passes down as a job from father to son, generation to generation.
The
Polus Center extensively interviewed individuals with disabilities along the
Atlantic Coast in February, 2007. Iindividuals, families, and whole villages
described complex needs. They need new and safe forms of employment, income generating
and activities for persons with disabilities, access to decompression chambers,
empowerment to address employers who overwork and under-protect their divers,
basic scuba training and equipment, and, most importantly, ways of assuring that
everyone in the community—especially those made vulnerable by disability—can
participate and contribute.
The Polus Center helped lobster divers by initiating
a boat-building initiative to build rescue boats that both provide an opportunity
for injured divers to get to the decompression chambers quicker while also providing
alternative work for former divers. More...
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 Ethiopian Self-Empowerment Project
People with disabilities
in Ethiopia face a combination of poverty, ignorance, war, famine, and drought
in the absence of adequate preventive and rehabilitation services." Consequently,
many people hide family members with disabilities for fear of social stigma and
there is little social support for disabilities issues. In 2004, the Polus Center
began a capacity-building project for grassroots disability organizations in
Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian Self-Empowerment Project assisted three grassroots
disability organizations in building their capacity to effectively implement
their own, individual projects and to identify the common needs of persons with
disabilities in order to take collective action. This project was a response
to the interest expressed by disability organizations to acquire the resources,
skills, and capacity to become self-reliant and affect existing policies and
services in a positive way.
The Self-Empowerment project worked with the Moon
Leprosy Cooperative, Ethiopian National Association of the Physically Handicapped,
and the Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National AssociationA delegation from
the Polus Center met with individuals with disabilities throughout Addis Ababa.
Representatives from the Polus Center, University of Ottawa, and Motivation (a
UK-based NGO) conducted more than 30 interviews with members of the Ethiopian
National Association of the Physically Handicapped, Women with Disabilities Association
of Ethiopia, and Moon Leprosy Cooperative. Using the information gathered from
the interviews, the Polus Center has launched the Ethiopian Self-Empowerment
Project that supports capacity-building projects for each of the three associations.
Small emergency funds administered by each association have also been implemented. More...
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 Ubuntu Association of Zambia
In January, 2006, the Polus Center
hosted a small fact-finding delegation to Zambia to learn about the relationship
between disabilities and HIV/AIDS through support from the Schiffman Foundation.
It was learned that social stigma, poverty, and other factors make persons with
disabilities more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and other overarching issues, but less
likely to receive services. As a result, the Polus Center helped local Zambians
to begin their own organization to begin addressing the problem. The Polus Center
provided a small amount of start-up funding and technical support to Ubuntu Association
of Zambia. The objective is to begin filling the gap between persons with disabilities
on the ground and the overarching services providing for health and HIV/AIDS
care, education, food, and economic opportunities in the community.
Beginning
small, Ubuntu began working with a couple of families that they had identified
as the most vulnerable within their group. The Polus Center worked with Ubuntu
to formalize its activities as "case management" and "grassroots
advocacy" to insure that people with disabilities received the same services
that other community members are entitled to and to advocate and create awareness
in the community to become more inclusive.
An example of someone assisted through Ubuntu is Mrs. T, a single
mother supporting four children and grandchildren, two with disabilities, living
in a tent on the outskirts of Lusaka. Mrs. T had no means of support, so Ubuntu
helped her to start a small business selling corn puffs in the city market. Soon,
with lots of help and advice, she was making enough money to not only insure
that the whole family was fed, but to begin building a home on their small plot
of land. Ubuntu meets with her weekly, following up to make sure the kids get
healthcare when they need it, the business remains viable, and assisting in any
way they can. More...
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 "A City for Everyone" Access Project
Addresses Barriers
The
Access Project that concluded in FY2005 addressed architectural and attitudinal
barriers to access through projects that range from installing ramps at key public
facilities to a full advocacy campaign. All of these projects built upon one
another, contributing toward The Polus Center’s mission to encourage and
support the full participation of people with disabilities in their communities.
The
goal of the project was to forge partnerships that maximize a disabled person’s
potential for self-representation, to raise public consciousness, and to demonstrate
the importance of inclusion. Using a method of universal design, an architectural
concept that aims to simplify products, communication, and the built environment
so that they may be used by as many people as possible at little or no extra
cost, architects put together a plan to make Leon’s downtown accessible
to persons with disabilities. The first four corners which were ramped allowed
access to a pharmacy, the Disability Leadership Center, the Ben Linder Internet
Café, and the University of Leon. The Mayor’s Office donated materials
and labor and the electric company removed utility poles that were obstructing
the sidewalk. Since then, a city park has been made accessible and other plans
remain at various stages of execution.
Achieving access is challenging because
it has both a physical and social component. Socially, access is most often regarded
as a physical issue but with the loss of physical access comes a loss of social
opportunity. Without physcial mobility, a person can quickly lose access to all
social and economic opportunities which lead to financial, educational and political
impoverishment.
The physical barriers involved in accessibility challenges are
relatively easy to isolate and address. Social access is much harder to define
and achieve. Attitudes, sterotypes, and misconceptions create invisible barriers
that must be addressed for true social to become possible. Social access for
people with disabilities begins with improving physical access to public space
and ends with raising public consciousness about the disabled community and the
issues they confront. More...
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 Disabilities Leadership Center
The Disabilities Leadership Center
is a natural progression from the Access Project. As a permanent center, adjacent
to the National University of Leon, it works to build the capacity of local disability
organizations, supports students with disabilities at the University of León,
provides on-going workshops, policy analysis and advocacy through forums and
training exercises, and facilitates consciousness-raising demonstration projects
that provide valued educational and economic opportunities for persons with mobility
disabilities.
More...
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Understanding Model Coherency Planning
 Based
on the work of Wolf Wolfensberger (1998), the three fundamental questions of
Model Coherency include:
- Who are the people in need?
- What are their needs?
- How are the right services brought to the right people in the
right way?
Effective human service programs begin prior to the initial stages
of program development; they start by searching for an understanding of "who" and "what." The
first stage of Model Coherency begins with interviewing the intended service
recipients or potential service beneficiaries to gain an understanding of who
the people in need of a service are. Through in-depth interviews a holistic understanding
of what a person's life is like can be ascertained and, consequently, what they
need. Model Coherency is designed to allow external factors, i.e. an individual's
economic status, personal relationships, etc., to influence a program's design,
effectiveness, and ultimate success. With the knowledge of the "who" and "what" of
the service recipients the program planning body can better determine how the
right services can be delivered in the most efficient and effective manner.
Human services exist in a complex system of competing interests
and it is important to find ways to safeguard the commitment to the real needs
of the service recipients. The challenge is to find a way to balance competing
interests, such as individual versus collective priorities, health costs, etc.,
with a number of other pressures while maintaining a firm commitment to the ideals
of the program. Quality of the service is directly related to how well an organization
is able to manage these various interests.
By maintaining focus on the people and the information they provided
in the interviews a coherent project design can emerge that reflects what the
people really need as opposed to what outsiders may think they need. With clearly
defined need is becomes possible to establish clearly defined services that are
truly responsive to people's needs.
Related articles on model coherency planning
Cooks,
E. (2001). Normalization and Social Role Valorization: Guidance for Human Service
Development (PDF)
Osborn, J. (2006). An
Overview of Social Role Valorization (PDF)
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