Community Based Rehabilitation

“This is for me?” One of the ladies asked, looking at the beautiful hand-held mirror she just decorated. Her question is perhaps not surprising. For these village women, much of life is spent meeting the needs of others – cooking, cleaning, serving guests, sometimes working outside the home to support the family income, helping their children study, and caring for the specific needs of their child with a disability. Opportunities to lay aside their responsibilities and just come together as women are rare. 

This is one of the reasons why Operation Mercy staff and local staff decided to invite the mothers of the children to the centre on a hot Saturday morning in May to do handicrafts together. At the beginning, when the mothers started to arrive, conversation was quiet. Not all of the mothers had met each other before. After a brief opening welcome from one of the volunteers, the first activity began. Holding a ball of yarn, the first woman said her name and then threw the ball to someone else—still holding onto the thread of yarn. At the end of the activity, the yarn stretched between all of the ladies in a crisscrossing pattern. 

“What does this look like?” One of the Operation Mercy staff asked. 

“A web,” the ladies answered. “A net.” 

“What does this remind you of?” 

Their responses were a little bit more varied.  

“We are all connected.” 

“We help one another.” 

From there, everyone moved to a back room which was set up for the main activity. Step by step the ladies were led through the process of decoupage – decorating small mirror frames with colorful tissue. The room quickly transformed into a chaos of cutting, gluing, pasting, conversations, smiles, and laughter. At the end each woman proudly held onto her creation. 

As women started to leave to return home, the remaining women conversed quietly. One mother began to share with another about the recent loss of her son who had a disability. As the other mother listened with compassion, she expressed how few people understand how precious their children with disabilities are. It was a brief conversation, but in that moment, suddenly they were connected by their shared love and understanding for their children. It was as if they were seeing their own experiences—the joys and sorrows—mirrored in another.