ERADA is one the newest programs established inside the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services. The idea of this program started in 2008 in the light of the permanent pursuit of the CEOSS to develop its interventions of the developmental activities inside the Egyptian society with an aim to empower the Egyptian citizens and help them get their different rights.
The Most important issues and problems of work:
- Reaching Support Devices and Artificial Limbs
CEOSS found that it is necessary to work more actively towards helping the disabled people reach support devices and artificial limbs as an important provision for achieving integration and empowerment.
Through the past experiences and studies performed within the work communities, CEOSS found that the authorities that can be targeted through disabled people to get support devices and artificial limbs are:
- Governmental authorities, that can’t cover the broad demand on supplementary devices in addition to its low quality.
- Private entities that provide the movement helper in high quality, but most disabled people in Egypt can’t pay for such devices.
- National entities that irregularly provide support devices
- Accessibility and integrating environment:
Success in implementing integration strategies and objectives can’t be done without creating an environment of availability. It is the environment that lacks to all kinds of hindrance that may lead to isolation of the disabled people.
Since disability is an external factor resulting from a shortage in the surrounding environment, the environment of availability is the one that ensures removal of the effects of disability and difficulties of integration.
So, availability became one of the most important concepts, at the moment as an indicator for the level of integration and equal opportunities.
Forms of availability in this broad concept are ranged between environmental availability, information availability and communication availability etc.
- Economical Empowerment for Disabled:
Financial independence for disabled represent a big challenges as a result of the following reasons:
- The entities that wok in economical empowerment for disabled are few.
- There are no studies or analysis in Egypt for jobs and functions based on its nature, mental and physical requirements, for each job to connect the available opportunities to disabled unemployed people.
- Egyptian economy in general faces a lot of challenges and difficulties.
- Labor market and businessmen do not have any information on the potentials or skills of the disabled people.
- Disabled people in Egypt lack to the required functional and professional skills.
- Difficulties of movement and communication as a reason for difficulties of providing support devices.
- The Egyptian environment is not adapted.
- Most work places are not adapted and not available.
- Most disabled people are not used to work
- Lacking for available training centers that provide training services for disabled people.
ERADA Program adopts some objectives and work on implementing them:
- To integrate the disabled people with society, provide them with equal opportunities in all parts of life.
- To empower the disabled people to depend on themselves and achieve their independence in daily life activities.
- To empower the disabled people to achieve economic independence.
- To remove integration obstacles within society either material, kinetic, optical or auditory.
- To empower the disabled people participate in the mechanisms of decision making to get their rights.
- To provide and improve the technologies and information, the supporting kinetic, optical and auditory medias and tools of learning.
- To enact the social responsibility for private sector.
The program translates its objectives into work plans through some activities and interventions:
- To raise social awareness.
- Engineering adaptation of the environment.
- To provide and develop supporting devices and artificial limbs and increase it expected life span.
- To provide and develop modern technology and programs of communication, learning and transportation.
- To enable disabled people reach the vocational and training opportunities and small and micro finance opportunities.
- To develop the organization of vocational and craftsman training for disabled.
- To provide information through all kinds of adequate means.
- To study and analyze social and economical problems related to empowerment of the disabled.
